12th Feb tidy-up spread-sheet

note tidy-up spread-sheet in post Thursday, 12 February 2015

Access to the beach (and,  indeed, the chalets....) ensured this Saturday/Sunday when the Marathon takes place

negotiation by email: see you at the ballot box

Surely you could reduce the rise to say 10% / 10% ??

No: we have decided our amendments; we are going to try to save some childrens centres, some voluntary groups, and some public toilets, as well as trying to keep parking increases down. We did not choose to keep beach hut rental increases down, sorry. Neither the cuts nor the Budget are our doing and we have chosen our priorities.

Councillor Warren Morgan
East Brighton Ward
Leader of the Labour Group

LABOUR WON'T CHANGE 50% RENT HIKE

FROM
Councillor Warren Morgan
East Brighton ward
Leader of the Labour and Co-operative Group 

to: Beach Hut Tenants 


We've yet to finalise our amendments - our scope to do so is extremely limited. We will focus on saving childrens centres, voluntary sector groups and a few parking charges in what we change, there won't be scope to change the beach hut proposals. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but with at least £23 million in cuts to deal with, we can do very little and have to prioritise.

Warren.

FROM  
 Cllr Geoffrey Bowden
Green Party Councillor Queen's Park Ward
Chair Economic Development and Culture Committee
Mobile: 07557 197601

Dear Roy

Here's the background which is driving this.

The waiting list for beach chalets had to be closed in 2006. There are 122 on that list who have been waiting for a beach chalet to come available for as long as ten years. In 2011 the council consulted widely about how to unblock this log jam and it was agreed that any new tenancies would be for 5 years only and only let to local residents in the future. This has created some very limited 'churn' but not enough to open up the waiting list again (and there are huge numbers asking about beach chalets and how they can get their hands on them). Sadly, we also know that there are a number of chalet leaseholders, who simply do not use them or only very rarely.

Against all this we have conducted a benchmarking exercise and the proposed new pricing levels compare favourably with Worthing and in the context of the council being forced into a corner by the coalition cuts to look at all areas of revenue generation, chalets has had to be included in the mix.

I appreciate that you will not welcome any increase, but I believe that if we are to open up the list to the many hundreds who would like the opportunity to occupy one of the limited number of chalets we have, then a pricing lever has to be part of the formula to create opportunities for them to do so.

Incidentally, you may be interested to know that in 2013 the council spent £52,000 on repairing and redecorating the Rottingdean (east) chalet block. This work alone exceeded the total income from all the chalets across B&H for that year. There are other blocks in need of similar work but we have to prioritise where we target the money and there are many other worthy causes along the seafront.

FYI - Madeira drive tenant wrote to Cllr Ben Duncan :
“hi ben
can you confirm you get this -and can you speak up for the Beach Huts tenants at Full Council ? The rents were hiked up by 10% 5 years ago on the grounds of need to improve mantainance, comparison with elsewhere ect ...a hike of 25% is "Wednesbury unreasonable": where else in the council budget has such a hike been made?
And we have not seen any "improvements" . The report was very skimpy on facts and comparators and NO consultation “
Cllr Ben Duncan said:
Yes I will speak up for the Beach Huts tenants at Full Council

When I'm not doing council stuff I write for an online news service these days: fignews.info

Can I write a piece quoting you as a beach hut tenant? If so, what would you like to say in the piece?
========

FYI (Madeira tenant)
I took a few minutes to see what I could find from other LA re beach hut charges. As the council have used Worthing as an example for comparison - I discovered that in the agreement for Tenants  (who pay close to the proposed increase) have a communal hut with running water & sink & electricity supply & the council maintains the huts . No where in the tenants agreement can I see that they have to paint anything.
In Hastings - various types of huts - the concrete ones each have running water & electricity & are only responsible for interior decor & still pay less that the 50% increase proposed for our huts. The other huts that have rentals ranging:-  £337 - £504 are much more in line with our responsibilities regards painting - I cant find out the situation for water & power set up for those huts.
Arun District Council - the LA huts at Littlehampton are managed by a private company - rents are £783.00.I am waiting for a response from them re facilities.
I think this "comparison with other LA's " is very flimsy given the wide ranging charges in relation to facilities.
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FYI - (i tried to unpack the data but my spreadsheet skills are confined to my bed only...
foi FOI4283 Beach chalet rent rises
https://foi.brighton-hove.gov.uk/requests/4283
further to this request, can you also note that the committee report appendix lacks certain details : viz: in each of the 5 sites = how many chalets are Tenants, Non-Tenants and Fixed terms tenancies? How many vacancies are there? How much extra income will be generated by the proposed increase?
Answer:
Fixed tenancy  Indefinite tenancy  Non residents  Vacant ()
Hove 6 15 1 0 = 22
Madeira Drive 2 18 2 1 = 23
Rottingdean 6 21 3 0 = 30
Ovingdean 1 9 0 0 = 10
Saltdean 1 16 3 0 = 20
------------------------------------
Total all Beach Chalets = 105
fees 14-15 Fees 15-16 Fees 16-17
Net figures (ex VAT) £48,230.00 £60,287.50 £72,344.50
Annual Increased income £12,057 £12,057
Estimated Total £24,114
============
Translated into Appendix 3 - Seafront Beach Chalets
£ current rent 2014/2015   =  £ total increase over 2 years inc. 50%:

Indefinite tenancy of  Tenants of Brighton & Hove
15 in Hove 928.86 = 1,393.29 
18 in Madeira Drive 637.55  =   956.33
16 in Saltdean 541.25 = 811.88
21 in Rottingdean 541.25 =  811.88
9 in Ovingdean 604.85 = 907.28
Non-Tenants of Brighton & Hove (I.e. not resident in B&H)
1 in Hove 1114.61 = 1,671.92
2 in Madeira Drive 765.11 = 1,147.67
3 in Saltdean 649.54 = 974.31
3 in Rottingdean 649.54 =  974.31
None in Ovingdean 725.80 = 1,088.70
Tenants Fixed Term Tenancies (I.e. since 2010)
6 in Hove 883.45 = 1,325.18
2 in Madeira Drive 608.59 = 912.89
1 in Saltdean 516.65 = 774.98
6 in Rottingdean 516.65 = 774.98
1 in Ovingdean 577.33 = 866.00
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