How to have your say at the Neighbourhoods, Communities and Equalities Committee

Brighton & Hove City Council has a new committee for Neighbourhoods, Communities and Equalities. Community groups are invited to contribute ideas and views to help the committee’s discussions.

There are several ways to do this:

 1. Keep an eye on the agenda and see if anything interesting is coming up

Committee agendas are usually published a week in advance of the meetings, on the council website. Here’s the page where you can see details of Neighbourhoods, Communities and Equalities committee meetings.

2. Go along to a meeting to observe

All council committee meetings are open to the public. The Neighbourhoods, Communities and Equalities Committee is meeting in community venues around the city. The next few meetings will be:

  • 5th October – Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, BN1
  • 23rd November – St. Richards Community Centre, Egmont Road, BN3
  • 25th January 2016 – South Portslade Community Centre, Church Road, BN41
  • 14th March 2016 – Valley Social Centre, Whitehawk Way, BN2

3. Send a message via the Community Works reps

Jo Martindale (Hangleton and Knoll Project) and Hanan Mansi (HOPE Sussex) sit on the committee as representatives of the community and voluntary sector. Jo and Hanan can take messages from the sector into meeting discussions and Community Works will be working with them to seek input from some of you on specific agenda items each time. Please contact Lorraine Prince at Community Works if you have specific concerns or issues you would like to raise with the reps.

4. Set up a petition

Anyone can start a petition on the council’s website. You can choose to send your petition to the full council or to a particular committee. If you get more than 1,250 signatures, the council will discuss your petition at a full council meeting and you will be given 3 minutes to present it.

5. Ask a public question or send a deputation

These are ways for members of the public to speak at Brighton & Hove Council committee meetings. There are regulations on the council’s website about how much notice you need to give for a question or deputation. If you want to do this, the best thing to do first is to contact the officer who looks after the committee. This is Penny Jennings – you can email her on penny.jennings@brighton-hove.gov.uk or phone her on 01273 291065.

6. Contact members of the committee directly

The council’s website has a list of members of the Neighbourhoods, Communities and Equalities Committee. Click on the name of a councillor to see their contact details.