- Jubilee events and Madeira Terraces restoration are part of the Conservatives’ initial amendments to the 2022-3 City Budget.
- Conservatives will look to provide £70,000 for the City to properly mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Year; and secure another £4.12 million for the Madeira Terraces restoration works.
- Proposals will be put to the Budget Policy and Resources Committee tomorrow night.
The Conservatives have announced that their initial amendments to the 2022-23 Brighton and Hove City Council Budget will focus on ensuring the city properly marks the Platinum Jubilee Year and securing further funding for the restoration of the Madeira Terraces.
The Conservatives, who have been critical of the Council’s lack of planning for the Platinum Jubilee, will look to ensure the event is properly marked in a way that will be memorable for residents.
Under the Conservative proposal, £70,000 would be redirected to fund Jubilee celebrations – one thousand for each year of Her Majesty’s reign. The funding would provide:
- A one-off pot of £30k to support community events over the Jubilee weekend in a bidding process (with £3k to administer the application and distribution of these bids);
- £30k to support City in Bloom across the Jubilee weekend in Red, White and Blue flowers;
- £7k recurrent funding to fund a £200,000 commission of a Monarchist statue commemorating her Majesty and her diamond jubilee; with the Council to also send a card of congratulations to her majesty on behalf of the residents of Brighton & Hove.
The Conservatives will also look to build on their success in recent City Budgets by securing further funding for the restoration of Madeira Terraces.
Conservative Finance Spokesperson Joe Miller has previously secured £9.15m for the Madeira Terraces restoration through his amendments in the past two budget rounds, with the Council now having £12m in total available for the project – enough for 80 of the 150 arches (phases 1 and 2 of the project).
The Conservatives’ amendment for this year’s 2022-3 Budget would dedicate a further £4.12 million towards the works, bringing the total available project budget up to £16.12 million, with the funding enabling the next phase of the project.
Cllr Joe Miller said that the amendments built on the work that the Conservative Team of Councillors has been doing in the City and would bring the full restoration of Madeira Terraces one step closer to fruition.
“The Madeira Terraces should be the number one public works priority in the City and we are looking to provide further funding towards this in the budget” Cllr Miller said.
“The Conservatives recognise that residents and community groups such as Save Madeira Terraces Campaign want to see the Madeira Terraces project underway and treated with the priority that it deserves, which is what this amendment will help achieve.
“Through our work in the last few years and the help of the crowd funding campaign, the City currently has funding available to restore - depending on procurement prices -between 41 to 80 of the 150 arches, however this amendment would open up the ability to restore even more and help provide more certainty to this project” he said.
Cllr Miller also said that residents wanted the City to properly mark the Jubilee Year and that this amendment would provide a small amount that would have a big impact on civic pride and helping the tourist economy.
“We would also like to see the city properly participate in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations which we know are very important to people in this city and would provide a big boost to tourism also.
“We are a city with a great Royal tradition and history and indeed a Royal Palace. The Queen has visited Brighton and Hove many times over the years and is universally respected by residents.
“This funding would help bring Cllr Carol Theobald’s petition for a return of City in Bloom for the Platinum Jubilee to fruition, with the City decked out in red, white and blue for the summer.
“It would be fantastic if our City could come together to make sure that the city is beautifully presented for the Jubilee year and this might encourage more tourists to come back to the City.
“We would also like to see a statue commissioned to mark the moment so that residents in the future will be able to see how we marked the historic and first-ever Platinum Jubilee in Brighton and Hove” Cllr Miller said.
The Conservative amendments are summarised below:
- To spend £70k (one thousand for every year of Her Majesty’s reign) on City Platinum Jubilee celebrations. To include a, £3k to run this bidding process, and £30k to support City in Bloom across the Jubilee weekend in Red, White and Blue flowers, and £7k recurrent funding to fund a £200,000 commission of a Monarchist statue commemorating her Majesty and her diamond jubilee and to send a card of congratulations to her majesty on behalf of the residents of Brighton & Hove.
This funding to come from:
- Reallocating the £40k earmarked for increasing the supply of allotments and fund this proposal from the Carbon Neutral 2030 Fund
- Reallocate £23k of the £68k for Tech Takeback to reducing this allocation to £45k
- The £7k from below
- To reduce by 76k this year and 76k next year the revenue budget contribution to the city wide transport model of £1m. To instead provide this from Sustainability and Carbon Reduction Investment Fund Transport Projects budget or carbon neutral 2030 budget. This will release revenue of £152k to support to be allocated as follows: -
- £7k pa to fund financing costs of £200,000 toward a Monarchist Statue
- £69k in 2022/23 to provide £1.96m capital investment towards the Madeira Terraces Renovation
- £76k in 2023/24 to provide £2.16m capital investment towards Madeira Terraces renovation
ENDS.
