Brighton council leader schedules Patcham and Hollingbury residents’ surgery
Councillor Bella Sankey will hold her next residents’ surgery at Patcham Community Centre on Ladies’ Mile Road on Tuesday 3 November, with appointment slots available between 1pm and 3pm. The session is being positioned as a direct point of contact for people living in Patcham & Hollingbury ward, where residents can raise concerns, share experiences, or put forward ideas for the area and the wider city.
The format is straightforward. One-to-one conversations with a council leader are designed to reduce the distance between local decision-making and the day-to-day problems people encounter in their neighbourhoods. In practice, these meetings often become a pressure valve for issues that are otherwise filtered through email chains, service desks, or public meetings where individual voices can be lost in the crowd.
A ward-level forum for complaints, ideas, and local pressure points
The council describes the surgery as part of an ongoing series across Brighton & Hove. Residents are being invited to book a slot in advance, and those without email access, or those unable to complete the paperwork, can call 07717 303 127 and leave a voicemail with their name and phone number. Someone will then return the call to arrange a time.
That arrangement matters because accessibility shapes who gets heard. A residents’ surgery can only function as a civic tool if people from different backgrounds can actually reach it, understand the process, and secure a place without unnecessary barriers. For some households, a brief conversation with a senior elected official can be the most direct route to flagging persistent problems such as street maintenance, housing concerns, antisocial behaviour, or local service gaps.
The event is not a ceremonial appearance. It is an attempt to gather first-hand information from residents who may already have tried other routes and still feel unheard.
Patcham Community Centre becomes the setting for direct civic contact
Patcham Community Centre, located on Ladies’ Mile Road, will host the session for residents in the Patcham & Hollingbury ward. The choice of venue keeps the meeting anchored in the community it is meant to serve. Local geography matters in this kind of civic engagement because familiarity lowers the threshold for attendance and can make participation feel less formal and less intimidating.
Councillor Sankey framed the upcoming surgery as an opportunity to learn what matters most to residents in Patcham & Hollingbury and across Brighton. Her comments reflect the basic purpose of the format: open dialogue, direct feedback, and a chance for people to describe challenges in their own words rather than through the abstraction of a written complaint.
I’m looking forward to speaking with residents and learning more about what is important to them in Patcham & Hollingbury and across the city.
Leader surgeries have already covered a wide stretch of Brighton & Hove
The current event follows earlier surgeries in Brunswick & Adelaide, Coldean & Stanmer, Goldsmid, Hangleton & Knoll, Hollingdean & Fiveways, Kemptown, Moulsecoomb & Bevendean, Preston Park, Queen’s Park, Regency, South Portslade, Westbourne & Poets’ Corner, Wish, Round Hill, West Hill & North Laine, and Woodingdean. The breadth of that list suggests a citywide effort rather than a one-off consultation exercise.
Repeated ward visits also create a different kind of political memory. Issues raised in one neighborhood can echo in another, especially when residents point to the same underlying frustrations: slow communication, uneven service delivery, or concerns that local priorities are not being reflected quickly enough in citywide planning. A surgery cannot fix those problems on its own, but it can surface them in a way that is harder to ignore.
As a council, we are committed to maintaining an open dialogue with our communities, and leader surgeries provide a good opportunity for residents to raise concerns, share experiences and contribute ideas that can help shape the future of our city.
Why these meetings still matter in local government
At a practical level, the value of a residents’ surgery lies in speed and specificity. Written correspondence can be useful, but it often strips away tone, urgency, and context. A face-to-face meeting allows residents to explain where a problem is happening, how long it has been going on, and what impact it is having on daily life.
That is especially important in local government, where many issues are highly place-specific. A road safety concern, a planning dispute, a housing issue, or a public-space complaint rarely looks identical from one street to the next. Direct conversation gives elected leaders a better sense of where policy meets lived reality, and where the council’s standard processes may need to respond more flexibly.
I would encourage anyone who would like a conversation about their area, the city as a whole, or any challenges they are facing to come along and have their say.
The surgery will take place on Tuesday 3 November between 1pm and 3pm, with advance booking available now. For residents who are unable to use email or complete the booking process online, the telephone callback option provides a simpler route into the session, which broadens access to the meeting and avoids excluding people who may otherwise struggle to participate.
For Patcham & Hollingbury residents, the event offers a direct opening to the leader of the council. For the council, it is another test of whether face-to-face engagement can still deliver something digital channels often miss: immediate, unfiltered local testimony.