Council to set clearer approach to memorials

Councillors have been discussing a new approach to temporary and permanent memorials in public spaces in Brighton & Hove.

The draft memorials policy explains, in a simple and sensitive way, how memorials on council land are handled, including plaques, benches, trees, gardens, public art, temporary tributes and historic memorials.

It seeks to brings existing council approaches together in one place to give clearer guidance to residents and officers to make the process easier to understand and less stressful at what can be a difficult time.

This approach is backed up by guidance from the Local Government Association who highlight the importance of clear, consistent and proportionate approaches when managing sensitive issues like memorials to ensure decisions are made in a way that is fair, transparent and sensitive to grieving families.

The draft policy was discussed at Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday night where cross-party discussion recommended that further work was carried out to look at details, including the proposed timeframes, ahead of the final policy being discussed at a future Cabinet meeting.

Councillor Jacob Allen, Cabinet member for Customer Services and Public Realm said: “When residents are going through grief and bereavement, the last thing anyone needs is confusion about what to do when they want to mark a loved one’s memory.

“At the moment, there is no single, clear process for how memorials are managed, which can leave people facing difficult decisions at an already distressing time and put officers in challenging positions about when to step in.

“It’s standard local authority practice and used at other councils including Southampton, East Sussex County Council and Surrey County Council.

“This is an emotive issue, which is why it was essential for the draft policy to be considered through the cross-party scrutiny process to ensure its sensitive and well-thought through before being agreed.

“By setting out how temporary tributes, longer term memorials and public gatherings are managed, we can support grieving families while keeping public spaces safe, respectful and accessible.

“I hope this clearer approach eases pressure on residents and gives officers the consistency they need to handle sensitive requests fairly and with care.”

The draft policy currently sets out that temporary memorials, such as flowers, may stay in place for up to 14 days but anything longer than that would require permission to be applied for.

Items that pose safety risks, or anything political, divisive or offensive, will be removed immediately.

It asks that anyone planning a public vigil or gathering of a large group of people seeks early advice from the council’s Safety Advisory Group.

These recommendation helps ensure events are safe, respectful and well managed, and helps reduce community tensions.

For longer term memorials such as benches and trees, donations will continue to be accepted, but applications need to consider environmental and planning considerations as well as plans for ongoing maintenance and have support from the community.

Commemorative memorials linked to historic events usually require a 20 year wait to ensure relevance and significance.

The council’s Cabinet Member for Customer Services and Public Realm alongside council officers will consider the feedback from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in developing the draft policy further.