Brett Wright was elected earlier this month as an East Sussex County Councillor, representing Meads in Eastbourne. His success as a Liberal Democrat resulted in the Conservatives losing their overall majority. We meet the man to find out what motivated him to stand and why he’s hoping his election will lead to a more collaborative political approach across the county
Brett Wright, above, first noticed the state of disrepair of roads and pavements in daily walks around Meads during Covid lockdowns – and he eventually tripped over on uneven paving.
He had recently retired after a career as a senior biomedical scientist and had intended to do some travelling, but the pandemic in 2020 put that on hold.
His irritation at the state of the surfaces eventually motivated him to stand for election to East Sussex County Council in a by-election on August 3 as a Liberal Democrat, which he won. The council is the highways authority, responsible for roads and pavements.
Coun Wright, 64, said: “I tripped over, and I thought if it continues to be a Conservative council, I don’t see things changing very much.
“On the doorstep, people felt they had been let down by the Conservative county council in terms of the roads and pavements.
“Lots of people I had met had tripped, breaking hips and limbs. It had been life changing. Some had even lost loved ones because a fall can be so serious later in life.”
East Sussex County Council’s website states that there are regular inspections of the county’s 2,000 miles of roads and pavements, that they are repaired and maintained, and weeds on pavements and kerbsides are sprayed at least once a year.
Coun Wright meets me at the Black Cat café in the centre of Meads, the well-to-do western area on the edge of Eastbourne which nestles under the eastern scarp slope of the South Downs.
It is just a few minutes’ walk from Holywell, the peaceful western end of the long promenade, and has elegant, tree-lined streets and large Victorian and Edwardian houses. In 1871, the Eastbourne Chronicle described Meads as ‘the unrivalled Belgravia of a salubrious and flourishing health resort’.
The previous ward councillor was Barry Taylor who died in June this year at the age of 79. He had served Meads as a Conservative county councillor since 2005 and as a borough councillor for 30 years until he stepped down earlier this year.
The by-election means that, of 50 seats on the county council, Conservative have 25 councillors and have lost their slim majority. The other parties’ councillors also add up to 25: the Lib Dems have 12, Labour five, the Greens five and there are three Independents.
It is likely the Conservatives will maintain leadership of the council but there may be an impact on council votes.
Coun Wright is quietly spoken and measured in what he says, as you would expect of a scientist who is continually weighing up evidence.
“I was maybe a bit naïve. I didn’t realise it would become such a big issue, that it would result in a hung council,” he said of the result, which he won with 1,649 votes against the Conservative’s Nicholas Taylor with 1,361.
Prof Tim Bale, of Queen Mary University, London, wrote on Twitter of the Conservative loss: “If you know Meads like I know Meads, this is, to quote Tony King on election night 1997, equivalent to ‘an asteroid hitting the planet and destroying practically all life on Earth’.”
Coun Wright said: “If it means there is more focus on issues in Meads, that would be fantastic. I think it gets councillors to focus and they think they have to go in to meetings to vote if things are close.
“I think it is also an opportunity for the other parties to work together and collaborate.”
The other main issue which arose on the doorstep was the uncertainty about the future of the University of Brighton’s Hillbrow Sports Centre on Denton Road, above, which is well used by residents.
The whole Eastbourne campus will close by the start of the 2024/25 academic year, although it is not known what will happen to the university’s buildings and facilities.
Coun Wright said: “There was a lot of passion about keeping it open. If it closes, it would be a real sadness for people – we need services.”
His biological science background led him to spend the last ten years of his career as scientific director for Roche in Basel, Switzerland. He oversaw the governance of products, and data on the safety and efficacy of the company’s medication.
Good cycle paths in the city meant it was a 15-minute ride each way alongside the Rhine to and from his workplace.
He observed: “There seemed to be a good system between cyclists, pedestrians and drivers who all respect each other.”
He is interested in finding out more about the situation in Eastbourne, where cycling away from traffic is banned along much of the seafront, despite a long-running campaign by local cyclists.
The idea to stand as a councillor emerged after Coun Wright talked to Eastbourne Borough Council member Coun Kathy Ballard (Lib Dem, Upperton) at a lunch.
She had been a Conservative councillor representing Meads before becoming an independent councillor then joining the Lib Dems after the 2019 local elections, when they retained control of Eastbourne Borough.
He met the local Lib Dems: “I like their attitude in terms of personal freedoms. I got to know the local Lib Dems and they seem very positive. I missed that positive energy from working in Switzerland.”
Coun Wright said he has always voted Lib Dem, seeing them as a centre party.
Professionally, he was part of the NHS team working in the early 2000s to develop capacity in the health service under the last Labour government.
However, following the financial crisis of 2008, he said that capacity and infrastructure to train “home-grown” doctors was cut. A coalition government of Conservatives / Lib Dems ruled from 2010 to 2015; the Conservatives won power outright in 2015.
The Conservative party’s idea at the time, he said, was not to invest locally but to bring medics from overseas to fill any gaps. The Brexit vote in 2016 made the situation worse and now the NHS faces a shortage of medical staff. “It is really upsetting to see that,” said Coun Wright.
From his time at Roche, he is particularly proud of ensuring medication used to treat Parkinson’s Disease continued to reach every patient worldwide after a factory which produced it in the United States was closed.
“It was a life-threatening situation: we needed to keep the market supplied and develop a strategy. We manufactured a basic tablet 24/7 to keep everyone supplied. I was proud of that.”
Coun Wright lives with his wife in Carlisle Road; his adult son and daughter also live in Eastbourne.
The first full council meeting he will attend is in early October. It’s starting to look like a busy retirement.
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