At a disability-focused hustings this weekend, David Maples — a disability campaigner and independent socialist candidate in the Westbourne and Poets’ Corner by-election — criticised Brighton and Hove City Council for what he described as “a systematic failure to support disabled residents” — pointing to cuts in respite care, regressive charges on families, and the scrapping of essential infrastructure.
Maples, speaking at the event organised by local disability charity Possability People, challenged other candidates to address the reality facing disabled people in the city. “At a hustings on disability, I heard little from the major parties about disability,” he said. “But the record is clear. The Labour-run council has pushed through cuts to respite care for disabled children, imposed new charges on families, and scrapped half the disabled parking bays on Regent Street.”
He cited a council decision to lease out a vacant flat at Drove Road — one of only two residential respite care sites in the city — to raise income rather than expanding provision. “The council’s own impact assessment warned this would increase delays for families already on waiting lists. Yet it was nodded through regardless,” Maples said.
Under the Children Act 1989, councils are required to offer short breaks to families with disabled children. Maples questioned how the council could meet its statutory duties while simultaneously reducing the service. “The rhetoric is about inclusion,” he said, “but the reality is families are being left without basic support.”
Maples also took aim at new post-16 transport charges for families with disabled children — rising this year to £459 — and at means-tested charges for adult social care under the Care Act 2014, which councils are empowered, but not obliged, to levy. “These are policy choices. And they’re choices that make life harder for disabled people and their families,” he said.
He drew attention to the broader impact of such decisions: “When disabled parking bays are removed, it’s not a minor inconvenience. It can mean a planned day out becomes impossible. Combined with shrinking respite care, the burden on families just grows — often invisibly.”
Maples criticised the Labour council for freezing allowances for adults with learning disabilities, even as inflation and the minimum wage rise. He noted that Grace Eyre, a local charity, had been forced to make redundancies — including staff with learning disabilities — after warning the council of the consequences.
“The truth is that the council didn’t just inherit difficult circumstances,” he said. “It has made them worse by refusing to take the measures it could — like taxing the rich or campaigning for the return of £110 million cut from the city’s funding since 2010.”
He also spoke out against rising hate crime and scapegoating rhetoric directed at disabled people. Quoting the partner of a prominent national politician who disparaged benefit claimants, Maples said: “This is how hate gets normalised — by people in positions of influence treating disabled people as idle or undeserving.”
Maples concluded by calling for a benefit system that reflects real lives — including those living with fluctuating mental or physical health — and for a city that defends rather than dismantles its support structures. “Minority rights don’t protect themselves. They have to be fought for — not with slogans, but with real political choices.”
The Westbourne and Poets’ Corner by-election takes place this Thursday.
Promoted by Callum Joyce on behalf of David Maples both c/o Community Base, 113 Queens Road Brighton, BN1 3XG