Brighton and Hove council services row

Green councillor Hannah Clare accused Conservatives of “misleading” residents by saying people cannot access Brighton and Hove City Council services in person.

The Green deputy leader made her comments as the Conservatives brought a motion to the full council on Thursday 21 July, raising concern about customer satisfaction and calling for a “return to in-person services”.

Councillor Clare said: “I would like to inject some truth into this debate.

“I’m not sure if the Conservative group are maliciously misleading people about services on offer or if they’re just not paying attention.

“Either way, Brighton customer experience centre has been open since September 2021, and Hove customer experience centre has been open since April 2022.

“By continuing to say face-to-face customer service is not on offer, the Conservative group are misleading the public and failing the people they claim to care about the most.

“People keep seeing claims from the Conservatives that they can’t access services when they can.

“The best way to support people who need to visit a council services face-to-face is by telling people they can, rather than claiming they can’t.

“I know because I regularly visit. You can just turn up at Hove and Brighton customer experience centre, and you can speak to someone.

“If the person there is not able to help you, and nine times out of ten they can, then they will contact the team that can or will support you to access the digital form of what they can do to help resolve the query.”

Councillor Clare said she visited the parking services office on Wednesday and found it “buzzing with work” with the majority of desks occupied. She said she had “every trust” that those working elsewhere are doing so to “the best of their ability”.

Conservative councillor Alistair McNair had put the motion to the council calling for a return to the pre-pandemic levels of 15 per cent of face-to-face meetings as there were none last year.

He cited the customer insight report that just 57 per cent of council customers were satisfied with the service they received, which he described as “no ringing endorsement”.

Councillor McNair said: “Residents want the human touch. Email and online forms are cold.

“There are a lot of plans to improve the council website and digital offering. Fine, as long as they work.

“Very little emphasis is on encouraging residents, our most vulnerable residents, to meet with council staff.”

Conservative councillor Anne Meadows backed her fellow Patcham ward representative and said residents had told her the council is not “open for business”.

She said: “I have that from officers themselves. While waiting on the phone to make an appointment for one of my vulnerable residents, I had time for a cup of tea.

“When I finally got to speak to an officer, I was told, ‘we don’t do face-to-face meetings, that is policy’ that wasn’t too long ago.

“As far as I am aware, that has not changed. For me, housing is a key service for so many reasons.

“Despite assurances from the director of housing and Green councillors, our service is not open, and it is not happening for so many vulnerable residents in our city.

“We still need face-to-face meetings for those people who do not have other means of access to our services, and that is not happening.”

Labour councillor Daniel Yates supported Councillor Clare in amending the Conservative motion to include references to the opening of customer service centres and the availability of in-person meetings with council officers.

He said: “We cannot afford to exclude some by moving to all online services as we know all too well.

“Not all residents are comfortable with non-face-to-face route, and they’ve already suffered the forced closure of customer services points in the last couple of years.”

Councillor Yates said the council invested in Hove Town Hall’s customer service centre ten years ago, improving satisfaction resulting in a “great outcome for residents”.