Bright lights in the city

Hello everybody

A bright end to the festival
Last Sunday saw the end of the Brighton Festival (sob). The finale was a free event on the seafront between the piers entitled 'Fleeting'. With lights and birds and fireworks, a crackling end was brought to the Festival. The Fringe continues this weekend.

Lanterns on the beach as part of 'Fleeting'

Brighton Festival finale fireworks

Thank you to Ali Smith, guest director, and Andrew Comben and the festival team for another fabulous May of culture. However in my view, the Sunday sky was also incredibly beautiful and impactful. You can compare the photos and make up your own mind as to which was the more fitting end.

Sunday's sunset sky

Bank Holiday
Bank Holiday Monday was better than forecast and up on the Downs hang gliders soared like enormous birds against a wonderful bright blue sky and puffy clouds. These machines are really quite magnificent and the take off is terrifyingly awesome.

Hang gliders taking off on the Downs

Hang glinders

Back to our new administration
So the start of the week was delayed by a day and on Tuesday we got down to work with the new administration. Foremost amongst their priority developments is the establishment of a Fairness Commission. Colleagues assisted in producing an early report which will go to Policy & Resources Committee in June to establish the commission and work up both its membership and terms of reference, led by the new Neighbourhood, Communities and Equalities Committee. On Wednesday, at our regular meeting of the Corporate Management Team, we reviewed the progress that our executive directors and assistant directors are making in establishing their working relationships with new chairs and committee members. It was encouraging to hear about the progress being made. The first new policy committee meeting of the new administration will be the Children’s Committee next week. I wish them well. You can have a look at the full list of committees and members on our website.

Stop Start Change
This week saw the publication on our intranet of some feedback for staff coming from their contributions to our 'Stop Start Change' initiative. Here we have asked staff to contribute ideas for activities we could stop, start or change that could have a positive impact on helping us reduce the budget, modernise the council, and deliver our Corporate Plan and the administration’s priorities.

An afternoon at The Grand
On Thursday I was pleased to have a constructive and fascinating meeting with Andrew Mosley, the General Manager at The Grand. The visit was an opportunity to hear the ambitious plans that Andrew and his team have for The Grand. It was also a chance to receive a ringing endorsement for the city’s ambitious economic agenda where priority is being given to ensure that the city remains one that visitors will want to come to in increasing numbers and local residents enjoy living and working in. Andrew is a member of the Economic Partnership within Brighton & Hove Connected and will continue to lend his weight to any initiatives which will help us to develop a sustainable seafront strategy, as well as capitalising on the planned developments of the i360 and the rest of the seafront. The fact that The Grand and other hotels in the city are flourishing and are ambitious to continue to renew themselves has got to be good for our economy and jobs.

With Andrew Mosley, General Manager at The Grand

Shaping our city
When I came into work today I was alerted to a feature in the Brighton & Hove Independent about the top 100 influential people in the city. Given the involvement of council members, local MPs, many of our key partners in all sectors and indeed a good number of my own team and their staff, I thought you might be interested in having a look.

Enjoy a good weekend – I leave you with the peace statue.

Penny

The peace statue