Gscene News Archive

Gscene Magazine is calling for Sussex Police and Brighton & Hove City Council to attend a public meeting to discuss the LGBT part of the city’s Community Safety Strategy 2008–2011 and the quality of the consultation that informed the strategy.

The move comes in the wake of a perceived breakdown in communications between our LGBT community representatives and the Council’s Partnership Community Safety Team (PCST), resulting in Spectrum, the LGBT Community Forum (the organisation the community decided in January 2004 would be our consultative link with the statutory authorities), taking a step backwards last year from working with the PCST due to their concerns about the working methods of the PCST.

The PCST is charged with producing effective initiatives to deal with hate crime in the city and, along with Sussex Police, is signed up to the Community Engagement Framework.

Last June, Spectrum said the authorities had failed to deliver effective consultation and were failing to deliver what they signed up to in the Community Engagement Framework, adding:
“Spectrum published 68 comments on the new strategy to reflect the strategic outcomes agreed to by stakeholders and to ensure community engagement is at the heart of all forward plans. We do not seek a role as community watchdog. We do want to ensure that there are effective and inclusive mechanisms in place for LGBT people both to contribute to plans to tackle hate crime and to hold services to account for delivering them. While the PCST reviews its role (which Spectrum has been informed by the PCST is happening), Spectrum is continuing to build on joint work with Sussex Police.”

Gscene editor James Ledward believes there is currently an impasse and is concerned that trust and confidence levels, especially with regard to Sussex Police, have been damaged by the present situation being allowed to continue.

He says:
“I view the present impasse so seriously I have decided to go on the record, bringing up some uncomfortable historical home truths about the behaviour of both police and council in the recent past on issues surrounding community safety in the city. I suggest a public meeting is called to resolve this situation.

“We need to establish how the LGBT community wants to resolve the present impasse, and move matters on to re-establish an effective consultative mechanism to hold the police and council to account on community safety and hate-crime issues. This clearly is not happening at the moment and is the root of all the problems. It is not for the police or council to decide who they want to work with – which has been happening, as they have attempted to sideline Spectrum – it is for the community to meet, speak and decide.

“I suggest the meeting is hosted by Spectrum, the organisation at present charged by the LGBT community to do this work, and be independently facilitated. I also suggest this process is fully funded from the BCU budget Sussex Police receive from the government each year, earmarked for community engagement work. A budget the police have handed over to the PCST, effectively denying Sussex Police the ability to work independently from the Council, with the LGBT community on issues regarding hate crime and community safety issues were funding is needed.”

A full in-depth report following an investigation by Gscene into the impasse can be read on the Gscene website at www.gscene.com from May 1.

Pictured the meeting at Dorset Garden Methodist Church in 2004 when Spectrum was selected by LGBT community people present to act as the consultative link between Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove Council on issues relating to Community Safety.