Petition to use reserves to improve council estates turned down

A request to spend cash reserves to improve council estates in Hangleton and Knoll ward has been knocked back.
Churchill House, Hangleton Road, HangletonChurchill House, Hangleton Road, Hangleton
Churchill House, Hangleton Road, Hangleton

A petition presented by Conservative councillor Tony Janio, signed by 158 people, asked for at least £100,000 from Brighton and Hove City Council’s Estates Development Budget.

The cash pot includes £237,000 of reserves – or savings set aside for a rainy day.

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And half of the £348,000 for this year’s Estates Development Budget came from reserves.

When the council’s Housing and New Homes Committee met last Wednesday (September 19), Labour councillor Anne Meadows said that this was not spare money.

Councillor Meadows, who chairs the committee, said that the budget for improving estates was shrinking.

She said that the reserves were being used to ease the transition to a smaller amount of cash for residents’ groups submitting bids for local projects each year.

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Councillor Meadows said: “To spend an extra £100,000 in Hangleton and Knoll undermines the sharing policy and may be considered unfair to people in other parts of the city.”

She said that there was still time for residents to submit bids for a share of the 2018-19 cash.

Residents’ groups and associations can bid for money to improve housing estates with council-owned buildings and land.

The budget is split four ways and allocated to north, east, west and central housing estates.

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Projects this year include plants for the apple garden project on the Bristol Estate, picnic tables for Ingram Crescent in Hove and a new path and bench on the Bates Estate in Moulsecoomb.

The only successful bid in Hangleton and Knoll ward was for new dining tables for Churchill House.

Sarah Booker-Lewis is the Local Democracy Reporter for Brighton & Hove.

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