Seagull Weekly Briefing 26/06

Good morning, and welcome to the Brighton Seagull's Weekly Briefing. Don't know about you, but we've had a really busy week, so we're just going to crack on.

First—make sure you catch up on Jem Collins' excellent piece on the new Sea Lanes lido that we published last week:

Sea Lanes Is A Beautiful Set Of Contradictions

Jem Collins on the shiny new Sea Lanes lido: it’s a place with contradictions at its heart, and that’s what helps it find its place.

The Brighton SeagullThe Brighton Seagull

Labour announces new proposals for redesign of seafront road

It's all go for cycle lanes in the city this week. The council announced last week proposals for a redesign of the A259 seafront road, which would provide a two-way cycle lane while keeping current traffic lanes—'common-sense improvements', they say.

Labour hope the route, which runs between Fourth Avenue and Hove Lagoon, would be improved for 'all users', including pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.

They say the redesign will address three key concerns: not having the cycle lanes separated by footpaths, keeping traffic flowing, and removing the cycle lane ‘loop’ around King Alfred in favour of a continuous two-way cycle lane along the seafront road.

Councillor Trevor Muten, chair of the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee, said:

Cycle lanes are hugely important to our city and are a crucial part of our travel and sustainability plan. We have to get them right. Most importantly, they must be safe and accessible for cyclists and pedestrians.

Two lanes for vehicles in both directions means good access for buses and car-users including our disabled residents, the elderly and those with mobility issues.

A two-way cycle lane separate from the pavement avoids putting pedestrians amongst cyclists and avoids having cyclists along the prom in front of Medina Terrace.

The Greens aren't happy, however, calling the 'financially irresponsible' redesign 'uncosted, unconsulted and undemocratic' and something that costs the city 'time, money and progress'.

They say that redesigning the scheme 'will cost at least £70k', and 'potentially hundreds of thousands in rework, contract termination and funding retraction costs'. It was not in Labour's 2023 manifesto, and nobody has asked for it, they claim.

A spokesman for the Greens said:

Despite the scheme having been debated and supported in council committees multiple times, consulted on with the public, fully funded and ready to launch, Labour have voted to halt the plans and scrap the progress made.

The planet is on fire now, and we need infrastructure that addresses that urgently. Instead, and shockingly, Labour have actively paid contractors to delay progress. Labour promised they would listen to the city, but just weeks into their administration they’ve already thrown that aside.

Meanwhile, council leader Bella Sankey says this could be 'win-win-win' for pedestrians, cyclists and road users, and that the council 'want our proposed redesign to serve all residents and make our beautiful and iconic seafront safer, fairer and more accessible to all'.

Mile Oak library to close

Mile Oak Library is set to close its doors for the last time on Friday 21st July.

We reported last month that a consultation was being held for four weeks on closing the library, as part of the council's city-wide savings plan to address the budget gap.

Following the consultation, which had more than 200 responses, it was revealed that the majority of people were not in favour of closing it. However, the council have said 'there were no viable options for making the savings required without closing the library', and that most users of the library also use others in the city.

The council said that running the library comes at a cost, quite literally: across an average of 150 visits a month from April 2022 to March 2023, the average cost per customer was £19.02, compared to an average of 78p across the city's other libraries.

Councillor Leslie Pumm, chair of the Equalities, Community Safety & Human Rights Committee, said:

I’m very sorry to see the Mile Oak public library close.

Our library service has done amazingly well to keep libraries open in Brighton & Hove through a time where we’ve seen local authorities across the country closing services.

Sadly, the low usage and high costs at Mile Oak mean it’s no longer viable to keep open.

We will continue to look at our options for what else we can do to support library users in the area.

🖋 News in Brief 🖋

• The hotel that 136 children went missing from is going to be used by the Home Office again, to house more unaccompanied child asylum seekers. The Guardian has more here. Residents are holding a protest tomorrow outside Brighton Town Hall at 6pm.
• IKEA is coming to Churchill Square! The Sunday Times revealed that a deal has been made, at a cool £175 million. It's expected that the deal will be complete by the end of the summer, and that IKEA will start to sell their wares in the former Debenhams location.
• BN1 Arts, a music and creative arts college, is set to open this September at Vantage Point, offering Level 3 diplomas in Creative Performing Arts and Creative Music Theory.
• Petition Of The Week: A petition has been started to bring back traditional parking meters, calling app-only systems 'discriminatory'. The petition, which at the time of writing has 134 signatures, says there are many flaws with the current system, including but not limited to: requiring drivers to have a smartphone with a connected bank account available at all times; being discriminatory against the elderly and others who may have difficulty managing the technology; visitors to the city, who may not want to download a new app for a short trip; and people that are worried about security issues when connecting bank accounts to phones. You can find the petition here.

This week's Dog of the Week is Carrie Stanley's 'Demon Damsel of the Downs', Boosh. She's 2, a collipoo, and absolutely lovely. Carrie said:

She is sharply intelligent, funny and sweet—hates human bare feet which she sees as an animal threat so we all have to wear socks all the time!

What's happening? Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) charities in the city are feeling unheard and concerned at the most recent OFSTED SEND inspection. This comes as Extratime, a children's charity that provide clubs and events for SEND children, is closing down as it is 'no longer financially viable'.

What did the report say? OFSTED said the council's arrangements 'typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people' with SEND. They said 'most children and young people's needs are identified accurately', and that they are 'well supported' as they move through schools. It is generally a balanced but positive, report.

What have charities said? MASCOT (Managing Autism Spectrum Condition Ourselves Together), said they conducted a survey of their members and gave the results to OFSTED. They say more than 470 people responded, and the results show 'a very different picture' to OFSTED's findings. They are 'seriously concerned that many families needs are not being met' in the city.

What did MASCOT find in their survey? The full survey is here, but some key points are:

• Almost one in every two (47%) of Brighton and Hove's autistic children and young people are "very unhappy" in their educational placement. Fewer than one in every 10 autistic pupils is "very happy".
• Almost two in every three pupils who attend a specialist secondary school are forced to go out of area to find an appropriate placement (62%).
• For pupils who have no education provision, almost 35% had not received any formal education for more than two years.
• Parent/carers report that the council will consistently employ wilful incompetence, intransigence, and other delaying tactics to obstruct the provision of SEND provision to autistic children.
• 44% are not at all satisfied with the children's educational support.

And others? The Parent Carers' Council (PaCC), a forum for parents and carers of disabled people who work to help improve services and support, expressed concern that the report 'could be a difficult read for parent carers as it is not reflective of all families’ experiences'. They said:

We know that not all families are accessing the support that a child or young person or their parent carers needs.

The inspectors also identified areas for development, many of which align with priorities and concerns that PaCC has been raising with partners in education, health and care. The city’s SEND strategy will be refreshed to ensure action is focused on driving change in these areas.

What is happening with Extratime? It is no longer 'financially viable' to run the charity, says Ros Cook, chair of the Extratime trustees, including rising costs, the national recruitment crisis in care and education, and non-council funding sources having reduced.

They recognise that it is worrying for those who rely on their services, but they are 'working closely with the council' to make sure services continue in the future. How, exactly, is not yet clear.

After-school clubs will continue until the end of the summer term, and youth clubs and holiday schemes until the end of the October half term.

What have the council said about Extratime? Councillor Lucy Helliwell, joint chair of the council's Families, Children and Schools committee, said:

Although we’ve been able to keep supporting Extratime with funding, it’s very unfortunate other factors have prevented it from continuing.

We will now be working with our local special schools and families and carers to find new providers to ensure as much as possible that no child is left without a place at an after school, youth club or holiday schemes.

We're also looking at ways of protecting as many jobs as possible for staff at Extratime.