Conservatives push for £1 million investment in Brighton & Hove's iconic seafront railings

  • Conservative Budget amendment would provide an additional £850,000 to upgrade seafront railings this year; adding to £125,000 set aside in last year’s budget
  • Stretches of railings have fallen into disrepair and need replacing after years of neglect and rust
  • Conservatives say measure would boost city and tourism economy in Jubilee year.

 

Conservative Councillors will ask the Budget Council to agree to a major new investment program to upgrade and replace damaged railings across the Brighton and Hove seafront.

 

The Conservatives will propose that £850,000 is allocated for the program this year, a sum which would add to the £125,000 secured by the Conservatives last year and that is already set aside for the upgrade, for a total project budget of £975,000.

 

The plans form part of the Conservatives’ focus on restoring Brighton & Hove’s lost heritage in this year’s budget, which also include amendments for:

 

 

Rottingdean Coastal Councillor Mary Mears said that the state of the railings reflected on the city and that there were many stretches of the seafront where the railings needed repairing or upgrading.

 

“Some railings are currently in a sad state indeed with certain stretches beyond repair and needing replacement” Cllr Mears said.

 

“There are 8 miles of seafront railings in the City, an iconic feature of the City.

 

“The past Conservative Administration in the City, which I led, prioritised a continuous painting and maintenance programme for our seafront railings, where the painters would work from one end to the other, and then start again, ensuring that they were maintained.

 

“Sadly this has been discontinued under Labour and the Greens, which has allowed the railings to rust and left some needing replacement.

 

“Brighton and Hove’s seafront railings are an iconic and reflect our city and this funding would allow us to return them to their former glory, which all residents would welcome” Cllr Mears added.

 

 

Conservative Finance Spokesperson Joe Miller said that the funding for the capital works project could be found through savings in other areas of the draft budget.

 

“We can find the funding through savings in the Council’s bloated bureaucracy and by removing expenditures that do not benefit residents, such as Councillor bus pass expenses” Cllr Miller said.

 

“The residents of this City want to see their hard earned taxpayers money spent on practical projects including restoring our heritage and our seafront railings.

 

“The railings are the shopfront window to the city that most tourists recognise them and many have their photo taken by them overlooking the beaches.

 

“Restoring our seafront railings will help present the city in a better light and attract more visitors, to provide a boost to the City’s £886 million tourism industry” he said.

 

 

Conservative Group amendment 6

 

• Provide £0.850m capital investment towards the replacement of seafront railings which requires £0.042m of revenue financing costs.

 

It is proposed to fund the £0.442m by:

 

• Increase the proposed saving in the Communications service shown on page 135 of Appendix 1 from £0.048m to £0.118m releasing £0.070m in 2022/23;

• Redirect the investment of £0.070m for weed removal shown in table 2 on page 20 and revert to using herbicides;

• Remove all Union facility time funded by the council releasing £0.295m in 2022/23;

• Remove councillor bus passes which will save £0.007m.

 

The above proposals require £0.070m one-off resources to cover the time required for consultation and implementation of the changes to the communications service and the Union Facility time. This one-off requirement will be funded by deferring £0.880m capital investment of the proposed 2022/23 allocation to the Carbon Neutral 2030 fund until 2023/24 which released £0.070m one off funding from the financing costs budget.

 

ENDS.