AT NEXT week’s city budget, our Conservative team will put forward a proposal that would fully fund the Madeira Terrace restoration project, having identified enough funding in this year’s city budget to complete the full restoration works.
Our proposals, which will form the centrepiece of the Conservative group’s budget amendments this year, would redirect and reprioritise £16.19 million of spending in the draft budget towards the Madeira Terrace restoration works.
This £16.19 million would add to the £12 million the council already has set aside for the first half of the restoration, meaning that the project would, for the first time, be fully funded, with the council having a complete project budget of £28.19 million to immediately undertake the works.
Budgets are about priorities, and we need to ensure that the council’s resources are going where they make a difference on the ground.
Rather than spend money on more bureaucracy, red tape and grand green visions on international matters that residents will not see any benefit from, residents want to see expenditure on practical measures where they will see a difference on the ground in their city
The Conservatives believe that the number one public works priority in this city needs to be the restoration of Madeira Terrace, which is the jewel in the crown of the city’s heritage and cannot be left untouched any longer.
The Madeira Terrace is on life support, having recently been added to Historic England’s at-risk register.
The longer we wait, the more challenging the restoration will be.
Our Conservative finance spokesperson Joe Miller has gone through the draft budget and identified areas where savings can be made and the funding reprioritised and directed towards the full Madeira Terrace restoration.
Cllr Miller previously secured £9.15 million for the Madeira Terrace project in the 2020-1 and 2021-2 budget rounds, which, combined with crowdfunding efforts from members of the public has provided the council to date with enough funding to complete phases one and two of the project – up to 80 of the 151 arches, depending on procurement costs.
The additional £16.9 million being proposed by the Conservatives this year, if agreed to, would provide the funding required to complete the remaining 71 arches and the rest of the Madeira Terrace site, including the Madeira Lift and Concorde 2.
Securing the budget for this project would be such a positive step for our city and would send the message out that we care about our heritage and will be putting it back on the map.
In recent weeks we have seen the council push the project back again. This project was supposed to start in 2021, was delayed to 2022 and now we hear it has been delayed another year to 2023.
As has been pointed out in letters to The Argus, the council has had money set aside, including that fundraised by the public, for several years now.
However during this time other projects such as cycle lanes and Valley gardens have been given priority, as the Madeira Terrace has slipped even further into disrepair.
It is time for the excuses from this council to end.
The money is there and as we have shown it can be found with sensible savings targeted at bureaucracy, red tape and areas of spending which don’t benefit residents.
Residents and community groups such as Save Madeira Terrace campaign want to see this project treated as the priority that it should be for the city.
The Madeira Terrace restoration is a project of strategic importance that is key to the future opening up the east of the city again, with benefits for tourism and the economy for years to come.
As the traditional site of Brighton’s outdoor events, the restored terrace would have a big impact on our tourism industry and open up new possibilities such as Christmas markets.
Following the work of Cllr Miller, completing this project is now within touching distance.
We now only need councillors to vote for it at the budget on February 24 and for the first time will be able to say that this project is fully funded.
I encourage residents and community groups to write to their councillors over the course of the next week and encourage them to vote for the Joe Miller amendments on budget night so our city can say for the first time that we have the funding – and the will – to undertake the full restoration of Madeira Terrace and put our city’s heritage back on the map.
- Steve Bell is the leader of Brighton and Hove Conservatives
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