Lewes MP criticises devolution plans

People living in places in Lewes District that could become part of a new and bigger Brighton and Hove City Council have raised their concerns with their MP.

People living in places in Lewes District that could become part of a new and bigger Brighton and Hove City Council have raised their concerns with their MP.

James MacCleary, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, has been visiting villages in his constituency during the summer recess and found people in places such as Kingston expressing concerns that Brighton and Hove could annex them.

They have spoken out since Brighton and Hove City Council started a public consultation on four proposals to expand its boundary to the east.

All four include extending the boundary to take in East Saltdean and Peacehaven, with options to take in Kingston and /or Newhaven.

Lewes District Council is also consulting on the city council proposals, with a fifth option that the city keeps its boundary as it is.

Mr MacCleary is a former leader of Lewes District Council who still represents Newhaven and Bishopstone on East Sussex County Council and Newhaven South on Lewes District Council.

He said that the consultation was pitched as an expansion when, in reality, all Sussex councils would be abolished and replaced by new ones.

He said: “The Brighton proposal was dumped on us from a height with no prior consultation with me as local MP.

“I’ve had an absolute avalanche of contacts from really worried residents. It’s come out of the blue for them too.

“In Newhaven and the villages of Kingston ward, we don’t think of ourselves as part of Brighton and Hove.

“It’s sort of a nearby place that we go to and value. But a lot of us go to London quite often but we wouldn’t consider ourselves a London borough.”

Mr MacCleary was not surprised that public meetings in Saltdean and Peacehaven became “feisty” at times and said that the proposals had caused divisions between Labour members on the two councils.

Three of the Brighton and Hove proposals would mean splitting East Sussex County Council “divisions” – the equivalent of wards – in half. These were the three that included Kingston and/or Newhaven in the mix.

Mr MacCleary said that the government had said clearly that there should be no boundary reviews as part of the process.

He said: “An East Sussex unitary authority makes complete sense here. We’re in East Sussex so we’ll keep existing county boundaries – and it doesn’t make a mess of the county divisions which is what Brighton’s ill-considered land grab does.

“We all thought we knew where we were – it was simple. Brighton will go to the west into Shoreham and Southwick, we would have an authority for East Sussex and one for the rest of West Sussex.

“I still haven’t heard any sort of rational explanation for why that isn’t possible.

“Now, all of a sudden, it’s we’ll go east and take part of your constituency and we’re not even going to come and speak to you about it, just announce it in the press.

“There has been such a strong reaction. It does feel quite high-handed from the Brighton leadership and like it’s being imposed upon us.

“I do share residents’ scepticism about the consultation. I think they’ll get a heavily negative response to the consultation which I really hope they pay close attention to. But I’m not convinced they will. There is a real danger that this is all a Labour stitch-up.”

At the recent public meetings in Saltdean and Peacehaven, Labour councillor John Hewitt, Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet member for local government reorganisation and devolution, said that expanding the boundary westward was “not financially sustainable”.

The two consultations close on Monday 25 August. For the Brighton and Hove City Council consultation, click here, and for the Lewes consultation, click here.