05/09/2020
This was written by someone who totally gets exactly what’s going on. Please share.
I’ll await my response:
Dear Cllr Mac Cafferty,
I refer to your article in The Argus dated 23rd July.
You mention that we are in a recession and that our city is ‘already’ currently in loss around £17M - £39M. You have recognised that income from parking, council tax and business are down and has contributed to this loss figure. You recognise that Brighton had thriving culture, hospitality and tourism sectors.
As you are aware we had a national lockdown in March/April/May, where almost everything came to a complete standstill. Central government offered cash incentives to try and help keep people employed and businesses afloat.
Shops were allowed to open & trade from 9th June, from which point other businesses were also given the go ahead too.
On the 15th July, I received a letter from the council, signed by David Parker saying that on the 14th May the council agreed a ’Covid-19 - Urgent Response Action Plan’ (i.e. the implementation of the new traffic layouts and cycle lanes). This was reviewed and updated on 23rd June. So KNOWING that shops were allowed to re-open and businesses were able to get up and running again; KNOWING that the city’s finances were in desperate need of rescue, WHY did you DECIDE to restrict our roads to the point of gridlock!? Not welcome tourists and take away income generating parking spaces, including the unnecessary closure of Madeira Drive and a multitude of spaces along the seafront and in The Lanes? Wasn’t the ‘Cycle Scheme’ set up by government to ‘Support the Opening of the Economy’? SO WHO in their right mind thought this was a good idea when you are trying to ‘financially’ recover from a worldwide pandemic?? If these new road layouts and cycle lanes were implemented to accelerate Green Party agendas and policies, then this is TOTALLY RECKLESS!
During lockdown, a time when people were not allowed near each other, restricted on their outdoor activity and NO businesses open, Brighton & Hove saw record numbers of people on the beaches and the city! LOCKDOWN was the time that we could have done with the restrictions that we have now. NOW is time for Brighton & Hove to get back on its feet again. Let everyone get back to work and trade again. Do you even understand the immense pressure and strain some families/individuals/businesses are under right now? People are literally at breaking point!! So why are you (the council) just making everything so difficult and contributing to this hardship? People are reporting that they are unnecessarily spending hours longer in their cars commuting, trades people can’t travel across the city to get jobs done. Emergency services stopped in their tracks. Even public transport and taxis are struggling to get around the city. All this for new road layouts to accommodate cycle lanes that aren’t even widely used. It’s not right is it? I can’t even imagine the carnage on the roads today as we see the schools go back. At the end of the day time is money. If trades people are forced to sit in gridlocked traffic, the prices of jobs will go up. People who commute to work, may even be on reduced hours, but now have higher fuel bills as they sit in gridlocked traffic, affecting their pay packet. Bus & taxi fares will have to rise to account for the extra time and fuel. There are no end of knock on effects. Do you want to see society decline into poverty? Because that is what will happen if you continue with this nonsense! It’s just craziness! WHY are we SO restricted NOW, when we are meant to be picking up the pieces of lockdown and financially finding our feet again and in-turn financially helping our city re-build. It just doesn’t make any sense does it?
We are in a recession and our economy is incredibly fragile right now. Do you not understand that being in a recession means starting up a new business is not an attractive investment option at the moment? Why would someone invest money into a business in a city that no one can get to, where people are losing jobs, people are not spending money, shops are closing around them, where you get no support from your local council (in fact where the council make life incredibly difficult) and confidence is generally at an all time low? Let’s face it this is not rocket science, just basic common sense!! You might as well just set fire to your money. It would be quicker, less painful and long term less stressful. Would you personally invest a lot of YOUR OWN money in opening up a business in Brighton right now?
People don’t want to hear that it was someone else’s fault. Once our lovely hardworking businesses close down or move away, those spaces are going to be left empty! And suddenly we’ll have areas looking run down and depressed. It’s no good blaming the economy or another political party. ‘YOU‘ NEED TO BE DOING MORE NOW to help the economy of our city, to prevent this from happening NOW. The people of Brighton and Hove will never forget this time, whether it be for positive or negative reasons. People will remember who helped them and who turned their backs in their hour of need. Perhaps something to remember.
No one is saying that the environment isn’t important. But the the thing is if Brighton went car free today, it wouldn’t have the slightest impact on world emission figures, so why focus so much on emissions when the most fragile thing right now, at this very moment in time, is our local economy? Now is the time to rethink these road layouts and focus on doing what’s right for the future of our city RIGHT NOW. Before the beating heart and soul of Brighton is lost for good!
Thank you for your time
Kindest regards
