3 weeks Ago
Sadly, I’ve learnt over the last couple of years that a Labour manifesto promise is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. The impassioned promises to scrap the 2-child benefit cap, spend £28 billion on Green energy, scrap tuition fees, nationalise public services, the assurances there would be no new North Sea oil and gas and they would abolish the House of Lords - the list of u-turns and broken promises continues to grow, at speed. It’s a similar picture here in Brighton and Hove.
While I could focus on any number of Labour manifesto promises which are yet to materialise, I only have 800 words, so I’ll focus on just one. Bins. The local Labour manifesto 2 years ago spoke about welcoming visitors to a “clean and tidy city” “with clean streets, regular rubbish and recycling collections”.
Yet any readers who saw the Argus front page last week about the “meltdown of bin services”, or any of the residents who reported one of the 47,599 missed collections to the council last year, will know that Labour’s promise to “get the basics right” has simply not materialised. The problems with the council’s collection service run deep, with headlines like the one we saw last week being a regular feature in local media over the last 30 years, or more. Plenty of bin sagas, disputes, threatened strike action, actual strike action, sabotaged vehicles, fires at the depot, a toxic workplace culture at Cityclean.
But for long suffering residents the question has always been, why? Part of that answer can be found in the 2023 independent KC report into the city’s bin service. Within that, Aileen McColgan KC, explained that a significant reason for the service’s failures is due to the bullying and harassment down at the depot which had festered for years - leaving staff feeling utterly demoralised and lacking any faith that change could happen. But when staff did come forward, Greens did listen.
When former MP Caroline Lucas heard the serious nature of concerns in late 2022 / early 2023, she took important steps to reach out to Labour politicians locally, at the highest level, to ensure that irrespective of the outcome of the local elections in May 2023, that whistle-blowers’ concerns would be properly investigated by whoever formed the next administration. And that report did happen, revealing not just a toxic workplace culture down at Hollingdean which whistle-blowers likened to being like ‘Animal Farm’, but suggestions of inappropriate behaviour by councillors. The KC reported that “A number of witnesses indicated that there were close links between the Labour administration and GMB reps within the Council and concerns were expressed to me that highly confidential information passed between the administration and GMB reps within the Council.
Witnesses also described a high degree of interference from politicians in disciplinary processes at City Clean.” Labour refused Greens’ request for an investigation into the potential wrongdoing on councillors’ part that the KC suggests. Which councillors, what information, and why? Media reports over the years read like work of fiction, with references to secret meetings held behind closed doors, with reports of “doing deals” and politicians undermining managers’ decisions, alongside reports of criminality, nun chucks and swords at the depot.
Peter James would be proud of this one. Yet the KC report is not a work of fiction, they drew on evidence and first hand witness accounts. The truth is, without a full investigation into the who, the what, and the why, it’s impossible to know whether there is any possibility of political interference, as referred to in the KC report, happening again.
What is clear, is the KC believed it has been a factor in blocking progress and improvements for the city. This is not fair on residents, or staff who were impacted by the toxic culture at City Clean for far too long. Commissioning the 2023 KC report was a start but with missed collections much higher than under the previous administration, it seems whatever the administration is doing is not working.
With Labour running the council now, and with Labour running the council for the majority of the last three decades, including 7 of the last 10 years, the current administration cannot keep deflecting from their own party’s role in the service problems. There is a long history of conflict and chaos within one of the most vital services the council operates, which continues to cause so much frustration and disruption for residents in the city. I won’t pretend that Greens managed to solve these historic and deep-rooted problems during our time running the council as a minority administration, but we have been honest that the issues run deep.
Which brings me full circle to my disappointment about what we are seeing from Labour, both nationally and here in Brighton. Trust in politics is at an all- time low, so the last thing residents need from political Leaders running this city is a whole load of smoke and mirrors and spin. Residents deserve better than that.
The 2019 report which residents have never been able to see, and which was discussed behind closed doors cost £44,100. The cost of the 2023 KC report was £266,000. The full cost of decades of drama and service disruption will be significant.
When it comes to the bin collections nosediving, as we’ve seen from data about them being missed soaring, we need some honest answers. Labour have played a significant role in the refuse and recycling history and dramas in the city. More than that, Labour promised change and we are not seeing it.
Steve Davis is Leader of the Opposition and Green Group Convenor.
