BRIGHTON and Hove City Councillors are due to vote on nuclear weapons for the second time in just over a month.

Councillors will be voting on whether “to call on the UK government to work for global peace” and to declare its support for a prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The debate and vote were previously held at a full council meeting on December 17.

It was abandoned after the council’s webcast service broke half-way through, effectively excluding the press and public.

As a result, the vote was not taken in accordance with requirements – meaning a confirmatory vote will now have to take place at a meeting on Thursday.

The proposal calls for the council to note “that any nuclear weapon detonation by accident or intent would constitute a major humanitarian catastrophe”.

If it passes, the council will call on the government “to work for global peace in a world free of nuclear weapons” by signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The council will then write to authorities including the UN Secretary-General to inform them of its support of nuclear prohibition.

The Argus: UN secretary-general António Guterres will be informed of the councillors' decisionUN secretary-general António Guterres will be informed of the councillors' decision

The Conservatives are, again, refusing to take part in the vote – branding it a waste of council time.

Cllr Nemeth said: “If the Green/Labour Coalition keeps insisting on using precious council time to debate national and international issues instead of important council matters which they are elected to manage they will continue to bring the reputation of Brighton and Hove into disrepute.

"Councillors should be concentrating on Council matters such as bins, roads and schools rather than parliamentary matters such as nuclear weapons."

The previous debate was widely derided by Argus readers, with one commenting: “The Tories are failing to acknowledge the crucial role that Brighton council had in the collapse of the Soviet Union by declaring the town a nuclear-free zone.

“The entire Polit Bureau realised the game was up and threw in the towel. As Brezhnev said at the time ‘we would have got away it if it hadn't been for those pesky Brighton Councillors’.”

Brighton and Hove City Council is part of the Mayors for Peace initiative.

Mayors for Peace is an international organization of cities dedicated to the promotion of peace.

Its aim is to “contribute to the attainment of lasting world peace” by garnering support for the total abolition of nuclear weapons.