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Brighton and Hove Independent Mediation Service AGM

Thank you very much for inviting me to speak at this AGM of the Mediation Service.

As an MP and councillor in the past I know just how valuable the service has been to many of my constituents especially in resolving what appeared to be intractable disputes with their neighbours.

Valuable - once the parties actually agree to the process of mediation. And that can be a problem in itself in some cases.

It’s no secret that we live in an increasingly litigious society where all too often, if they can afford it, people resort to the courts to settle disputes or expect some outside agency to act immediately on their behalf whatever the other side of the argument might be.

It seems to me that the reaction of some people to the new High Hedges legislation is a good example – and I know that Mediation UK had some input to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on the detail of that legislation.

What the law does is to provide the possibility of action by a local council to compel an unreasonable householder to do something about overgrown leylandii particularly on the borders of a property, where other measures - such as mediation - fail.

The attempt to encourage both sides to act reasonably through some process of mediation is essential to the legislation. The fact that the complainant pays a fee to the local council to have a complaint investigated might mean – and I’m unsure about this – a new area of work which local council’s can afford to contract an outside agency to mediate.

But, of course, what some of those people who have campaigned for legislation on High Hedges – and there are 1000s of them across the country - wanted was a clear situation in which the wishes of the neighbour with the high hedge would would not be considered and he or she would automatically have a fine imposed by the local authority if the thing grew above a certain height.

And it is in the area of neighbour disputes that I am most aware of the independent mediation service playing an important role especially in dealing with referrals by the council of housing associations.

I haven’t seen local figures for last year but I do know that nationally the 2,800 community mediators currently active accepted 20,444 cases as suitable for mediation and that full or partial agreement was reached in around 70% of those cases whether through face to face or shuttle mediation.

I was interested to see the national figures from Mediation UK about the kinds of issues leading to dispute –

noise 38%
abusive or anti-social behaviour 21%
children’s bahviour 14 %
boundary and property disputes 13%
racial harassment 2%

And I would certainly be interested to know how that national breakdown is reflected in your work locally.

What is clear is that demand for mediation services has grown and continues to grow since the then Department of the Environment first encouraged local councils in a circular in the 1990s to use community mediation.

Locally you have been working not only with the housing department and housing associations but also with EB4U, with the Community Safety Team and with the black and minority ethnic community.

What is most important about a service like yours is the emphasis on preventative action, on conflict resolution and on restorative justice, seeking not to apportion blame so much as looking at how people can work to improve their relationships in the future.

Nationally Mediation UK has played a role in influencing government policy – for instance, through it’s contribution to the work on Lord Woolf’s report on Civil Justice Reform with its emphasis on dispute resolution; through the emphasis in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 on restorative justice; and its more recent work for the Legal Services Commission on community disputes and anti-social behaviour.

I’m a great supporter of the sensible use of ASBOs and dispersal orders. I’ve seen what a positive difference they’ve made in many neighbourhoods in Brighton. It was interesting to see when I visited the Community Safety Team in North Street with the Lord Chancellor earlier this year the careful consideration which is given to making decisions about action on anti-social behaviour and, indeed, the very wide age range of those with ASBOs from teens to 60s.

But I do say the sensible use of ASBOs.

Because I do think they have be seen in the context of a wide range of government policies – from New Deal For Communities to Neighbourhood Renewal to Active Communities programmes, to Sure Start - whose underlying aim is building local community involvement and decision-making of the kind which we can see working so well locally in Hollingdean and beginning to work in the Tarner/Grove Hill area and in some other parts of Brighton and Hove

Where local decision-making and involvement support and in some cases gradually help to recreate a sense of pride in the local community.

In that context the legal sanction should be a last resort when community conciliation has been tried and failed.

But to do that valuable work needs funding and while I am aware of the increasing amount of work Mediation UK does for or with government departments and agencies nationally, bringing it important funding, I suspect that little if any of that finds its way to local services such as yours.

I can’t offer any immediate solutions to that problem of funding, but I can say call on me if you feel it would be helpful to have your MP’s support in funding bids which you make and, if there are issues about secure funding lobby me, not just tonight but at other times as well.

Once again, my thanks for inviting me to your AGM and for the continuing success of your work.