£15m will be spent improving Brighton and Hove schools

Outgoing Brighton and Hove City Council leader Warren Morgan, said the money would go to renovate crumbling buildings.

In an exclusive interview with The Argus the Labour councillor also said:

• Council planning targets should be re-examined, because “affordable” does not mean affordable
• He went ahead with the city centre Valley Gardens transport scheme fearing abandoning it would jeopardise other funding.
• He believes last summer’s crowdfunding campaign saved the Madeira Terraces
• The council may abandon plans to merge the management of the Pavilion and the Brighton Dome

Cllr Morgan announced his decision to resign from the council leadership earlier this month. He will step down in April and retire from the council at next year’s elections.

Councillor Morgan told The Argus a controversial consultation to redraw school catchment areas, which was abandoned after revised figures showed it was unnecessary, had been necessary at the time.

He said: “If we hadn’t gone through that exercise, we wouldn’t be where we are now.

“Two years ago we were told there would be too many pupils in the city centre, that current schools wouldn’t be able to cope, that there was such demand we needed a new secondary school.

“The heads were saying at that time ‘We are full, we can’t expand any more’.So we had to act.”

When it was believed the city needed an extra secondary school, £15m of central government funding was given to Brighton and Hove.

That school is now not being built, and no plans have yet been announced for the cash.

But the outgoing leader revealed: “It’s coming to the Policy Resources and Growth committee and it will be spent on existing schools.

“In part to address the expansion of schools who’ve said they’re willing to expand, and in part on the dire need to do up classrooms and do up dining halls.”

A council spokesperson confirmed: “The money is capital money and can only be spent on buildings and infrastructure associated with present and future predicted school needs across the city.

“We are at present looking at how and where the money will be allocated to meet identified needs, and any decisions will need to be approved by the council’s policy, resources and growth committee.”

Cllr Morgan said he was proud of the council’s record on homelessness but acknowledged more needed to be done to eliminate the problem.

Three years ago he pledged to end rough sleeping by 2019 in response to a challenge by Andy Winter of Brighton Housing Trust.

Mr Winter said: “Ending rough sleeping by 2019 was always going to be tough especially when central government has policies that exacerbate the crisis. Nonetheless, there has been excellent partnership working. Together we have moved 1,300 rough sleepers off the streets.”

INTERVIEW

What are you proudest of achieving in your three years?

I’m proud that on my watch we’ve built more council homes than any council in the last 30 years.

And the Joint Venture with Hyde, a 50-50 venture which will deliver a thousand units affordable to people on the national living wage.

What have been the greatest frustrations?

We are the only top tier council that operates under a committee system. So even without a majority, the leader under a cabinet system would have a lot more power, a lot more ability to get things done quickly.

HOUSING: many developments have fallen short of your ‘40 per cent affordable’ target. Has the council team negotiated hard enough?

Even if we’d got 40 per cent out of every developer on every development, that accommodation would have been affordable at only 80 per cent of market rates, which I would argue is not affordable to anyone.

That is just giving a subsidy to to people who are wealthy enough to afford accommodation in the city anyway

So the target was meaningless?

It’s not meaningless, it’s better to have some units within each development with are more affordable, but they’re not affordable enough.

Should the target be dropped?

I think the policy needs to be looked at again.

HOMELESSNESS: You said you wanted to eliminate homelessness by the end of the council term. Are we on track?

That was a challenge laid down by Andy Winter of Brighton Housing Trust in 2015 and I was the only party leader to pledge that committed to that.

I’d be the first to admit the numbers of people on the streets are increasing or at best staying static which is not what we wanted to do.

But on the other hand I am quite proud we have prevented hundreds, thousands of people from going onto the streets and we have taken hundreds of people off of the streets.

Obviously they are replaced by people either coming into the city or becoming homeless because of their housing situation anyway.

VALLEY GARDENS: Why press ahead with a scheme which is not even designed to improve traffic flow?

When we came to power it was approved and funding awarded, a significant amount of funding we weren’t in a position to give back.

We’ve done as much work on that as possible to get the maximum benefits out of it for drivers, pedestrians, bus users, for the city centre itself.

If five years from now your name is synonymous with that piece of town planning, are you going to be happy with that?

Not really, because it was a scheme I inherited, that’s the fate of every council leader.

Did you not have the option just to say, "Keep your ten million"?

No. I think had we done that we could have basically said goodbye to any further funding from the government.

SCHOOLS: Do you think the catchment area change was mismanaged?

No, if we hadn’t gone through that exercise, we wouldn’t be where we are now.  

Two years ago we were told there would be too many pupils in the city centre, that current schools wouldn’t be able to cope, that there was such demand we needed a new secondary school.

The heads were saying at that time ‘We are full, we can’t expand any more’.So we had to act.

And then when the projections changed and the heads said we can take additional numbers then it was right that we made the change.

But it transpired it was possible to convince those heads to change their minds, so somebody took a meeting in which they failed to do that, the result of which was a year of consultation and cost and emotional upset.

But even if two years ago the heads had agreed to take more, the projections said it wouldn’t have solved the problem.

We got £15m for the school that was to be, what’s happening to it?

It’s coming to the Policy Resources and Growth committee and it will be spent on existing schools.

In part to address the expansion of schools who’ve said they’re willing to expand, and in part on the dire need to do up classrooms and do up dining halls.

KING ALFRED: Are you still behind the Crest Nicholson/Starr Trust bid?

Yes. To build a modern leisure centre an enabling housing development was always going to be involved.

To what extent is the Starr Trust still involved?

They’ve been involved throughout. They started it, they brought in Crest Nicholson, they’re an integral part of making sure it fits with local needs, I’ve had no complaints about my dealings with them.

MADEIRA TERRACES: Are they saved?

Yes. Getting the money from the crowdfunding was key to backing our bid for Heritage Lottery funding.

THE PAVILION: Do you regret how the move to a Trust has been managed?

I think it’s unfortunate it’s become so polarised. It’s been portrayed as privatisation which I absolutely reject. That would be like saying anything owned by the National Trust is privatised.

It’ll be placed in trust. It means it can access charitable funding which the council can’t. It’s surely the only way forward.

Now obviously there has been a debate about whether that is immediately part of the Dome and Festival Trust or in a new trust with them, or a stand alone model.

At the moment we are looking at the finances and figures to see whether a stand alone trust either short term or permanently is viable

So you’re now saying it may not be a single trust?

We’re looking at all of the options.

What are you doing next?

I don’t have any posts lined up, any jobs lined up.

I’ve had one holiday in three years. I don’t plan on going away but I’ve built in an extended break.

I’ve been a full time politician for 15 years, so it’s a big step into the unknown.