IN NORMAL times, we welcome visitors to Brighton and Hove. We have a large tourist sector that helps drive our local economy and we’re proud of the local businesses, attractions and events that bring people to our city year after year.

But we are still nowhere near to being back in normal times. The Government’s relaxation of lockdown restrictions, meaning people can travel to spend time at their favourite places to visit, has had a real impact on popular tourist destinations like ours.

Because so many love coming to our city, this potentially puts people’s safety at risk and could undo all the work to prevent Covid-19 spreading, which was achieved during lockdown.

We know how busy the beaches get on sunny days and especially over the weekend and this made physical distancing impossible at times. The council ran a poll on Twitter asking people how they felt when out and about over the last weekend of May and 93 per cent of respondents said the city was busy and more than 62 per cent said they felt unsafe. Some people told us they did not feel they could even go outdoors because of how unsafe they felt.

I’ve also had lots of residents write to me directly to express similar sentiments. It’s incredibly upsetting to hear from people who live in the city, many of who have no garden or balcony, that they can’t go to their local park or the seafront because they feel unsafe. As I outlined last week, I’m calling on Government to grant us more powers so that if there is evidence that the spread of infection is becoming uncontrolled, we can consider specific localised responses. I was pleased to see 85 per cent of residents support this, according to a recent Argus poll.

We need to be able to undertake the actions we feel best protect the people who live here – and we need to hear from Government on this as a matter of urgency.

For the time being we ask for your continued support and co-operation to help protect our city. Please do keep physically distancing when walking around outside or in shops, look out for one another and #staysafe.

This is not the only issue I’m pressing Government on. I have written jointly with leader of the opposition Councillor Mac Cafferty to the Government’s homelessness czar Dame Louise Casey, calling for support from the Rough Sleeping Taskforce to end homelessness. The Labour and Green groups have pledged to work together to tackle the city’s housing crisis, and this letter seeks to lobby Government for a permanent solution to homelessness while offering our ideas and outlining what we need to do to keep rough sleepers off the streets. We are accommodating about 400 rough sleepers through the public health crisis, and the regular engagement achieved over the past few months has given some homeless people a route to a more secure lifestyle and hope for a better future. We do not want to see those people return to the streets after lockdown, so we are urging the Government to support us to implement the “Housing First” model until we can eradicate homelessness for good in our city.

I am also writing jointly with Cllr Mac Cafferty to Black Lives Matter in Minneapolis, expressing our sympathy and solidarity with the people of colour of the city. Last week we as a council put out a statement in support for everyone protesting for equal rights in America and across the world, in light of the death of George Floyd.

We lit Brighton Palace Pier, the Brighton Centre and the i360 purple on Friday night, and we asked you to come out on your doorsteps and hold a minute’s silence at 8pm while either standing or “taking the knee”. I want to thank everyone who participated – it was a humbling display of the anti-racist and inclusive values of this city once again.

Finally, I want to remind everybody that the discretionary fund I wrote about in this column last week is now open for applications. More than 80 small businesses have applied since applications opened. These are grants, not loans. They are being offered to a range of small businesses in the city affected by Covid-19 which have not been able to access other support. There is a total fund of £3.7 million and three levels of grants; £25,000, £10,000, and any amounts under £10,000. We are lobbying Government to allow to us to use any leftover funds from the Small Business Grants Programme to top up this fund and will keep you updated. The closing date for the first round of applications is June 12, so if you’re a small business in need of support please do not delay in applying at https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/business-and-trade/how-get-covid-19-business-support-grant