In the last few days I have read some inspiring news via national news sources of cross party cooperation at work here in Brighton & Hove City Council. The theme of the story was youth work which is a vital part of the public services in our city, but let us hope that it represents a broader sense of commitment from our politicians to work together in an attempt to tackle a range of key priorities that matter to all of us, irrespective of our age. I read about this joint working in a national e-journal called ‘Children and Young People Now’ which I first subscribed to whilst I was chair of a youth based charity which used to be called Hove YMCA and is now known as YMCA Downslink Group. Although it is only one of a myriad of youth charities in our area, the work it carries out is very significant helping to house and support literally thousands of young people every year. The challenge of ensuring that as a Trustee, I was informed regarding the work of youth agencies led me to subscribe to several publications including CYP which sadly is frequently full of bad news such as failure of Councils to deliver effective services or failure of the Government to provide adequate infrastructure for children and their families. When a piece of positive news appears it is always worth a read and when it relates to Brighton & Hove it is even more exciting. This week along with the news about our city came news from London about an investment by Sadiq Khan of £45m into youth services. The news regarding London emerged a day before that announcement from Brighton and Hove which explained how a cross party group in the Council which includes youth agencies has been formed to enable Councillors from all three parties to work together and agree how to improve youth services in our city. The proposal to award £90,000 to be spent following discussions by this group is clearly a good step in the right direction. However it does depend on being approved by the full Council who are meeting on Thursday so let us hope that they do approve this part of the budget. It is apparently part of a package of £460,000 which is to be spent in a number of ways to help meet some of the needs of young people in our city.

The sum set aside by Sadiq Khan on a population basis is four times the amount being voted upon by our Council. It is always frustrating to find out how much more money is available to be spent in London on services such as education, policing, transport etc. than anywhere else. Let us hope that such news will ensure our Council does not seek to reduce the sum proposed for this exciting initiative. Clearly it is much easier for a single elected Mayor to make decisions than for a Council without overall control. It does seem however that as electors we have sent a clear message to our Council over the last 4 elections that we don’t believe any of the three main parties are sufficiently capable of running the city on their own. It must be difficult for members of political parties that promote tribalism as though political identity is more important than humanity, to then come together for the good of a community. However we have some really competent Councillors across all of the parties, so hopefully this youth focused group will act as a catalyst to do more joint working and attempt to address more issues which do not challenge party policies.

One of the areas that I would love to see addressed by the council in a collaborative manner is a commitment to work together to improve the city for the many visitors who help to ensure that unlike many other sea side towns, we continue to benefit from tourism and visitors throughout the year. This includes the need for quality provision for the many large scale events that take place in our city on a regular basis. The impact of football crowds at the main station on match days or of crowds leaving Preston Park and heading into town and unable to find public toilets are two areas which require planning. I am also very aware of comments from people who visit our city occasionally to walk along the seafront or enjoy the beach, who seem to take the view that our city has become a bit tired and dirty over recent years. It may well be that the Council has got some plans to improve our offering to visitors, but working together would surely ensure a longer term strategy to be adopted.