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Newsletter 179 - November 2002

In this issue:

• What do you know...
• On the Beat
• Breakfast?
• Less Troughs!
• Green fingers needed!
• Read all about it!
• Why give up when you can amend?
• SOS didn't give up
• So who wants this development?
• Campaigning doesn't come cheap!
• Thanks!
• More Flats in Castle Street

What do you know...

...about the Regency Square area and Brighton generally? Here is a chance to find out.

We are organising a Brighton quiz (and a little bit of Hove actually!), with the emphasis on Regency Square. Questions will cover topics like history, people and places. There will be music and picture rounds.

The quiz will be held on Wednesday 27 November in the Havana Club which is in the basement of number 5 Regency Square. The doors open at 7:30pm and the quiz starts at 8pm.

Teams will be formed on the evening so you can join a team when you arrive. The winners will get a prize.

Refreshments will be provided.

Clue: the answer to one of the questions is in this newsletter!

On the Beat

Your committee has had a very useful meeting with our local community beat police officer. Matt Ebeling.

You may have noticed police signs recently indicating an increased police presence in our area. Matt told us that between April and September this year 39 crimes were reported in the Regency Square area. Most of these involved vehicles and affected visitors to the area rather than residents. This is a typical crime level for an area of this kind.

Matt wants to set up local neighbourhood watch schemes. Our area is too large for a single scheme so smaller neighbourhoods will need to be identified, for example Queensbury Mews. Call Matt if you are interested in being involved.

If you see anything suspicious, give Matt a call. It is important he has full knowledge of activity in the area so he can make the case for adequate police coverage.

Mobile: 07766 602 622
Office: 0845 60 70 999 extension 50241

Breakfast?

Go on! Spoil yourself with a cooked breakfast before the New Year resolutions start! And enjoy the company of your friends and neighbours.

The Society's year-end breakfast will be at 10am on Sunday 29 December in the Regency Restaurant.

It's very informal so just come along and take a seat. You order your own meal and pay for it yourself. You can have a good meal for under a fiver.

And, of course, the sun will be shining, so you can walk it off afterwards with a stroll on the seafront.

Less Troughs!

In recent summers the ugliness of Regency Square's metal railings has been softened by troughs of flowers.

The display was disappointing this year and the Council was planning not to put any troughs in the square next year. Thanks to a request from the Society they have had a re-think.

There will be eight troughs on the railings next summer - less than previous years. Different plants will be tried to see if they are better suited to local conditions.

Green fingers needed!

The Council has given the Society a supply of bulbs to plant in Regency Square. If you can help with the planting please contact Ros Boulden (01273 323690).

Read all about it!

Churchill Square is ugly, but it's handy! So we love it and we hate it. But what was there before?

If you would like to find out, then you need a copy of a new book which is about to be published, called "Churchill Square revisited - a lost Brighton community".

It tells the story of how attractive residential streets were bulldozed away to make way for Brighton's new shopping centre. Historic photographs allow us to see for ourselves what happened.

The book has been written by our treasurer, Andrew Walker as part of the society's local history project. It will be published at the end of November and will be available in local bookshops. Borders and City Books should have copies. The price is £6.99.

If copies are available in time we will have them for sale at the quiz night on 27 November - and the author will be pleased to sign them.

You can find out more information on the book on our special page.

Why give up when you can amend?

Experienced developers know a thing or two about how people behave when they don't like a proposed development.

So it is unlikely that St Modwen were surprised when they heard the objections to their initial proposals for buildings either side of the West Pier, They may not have expected such a well organised and widely supported campaign

They listened to the objections and then put in an amended planning application which tried to respond to some of the objections, while still giving them what they wanted. The good thing about this tactic, from the developer's point of view is that the previous letters of objection received by the Council are no longer relevant.

Developers rely on this. They expect the campaign to die away, partly because the new design meets some of its objections, and partly through natural lethargy.

SOS didn't give up

The Save our Seafront campaign didn't follow the normal pattern.

With only a few short weeks in which to respond to the amended application it rallied its supporters and mounted a second mailing campaign to encourage people to write yet again to the Council objecting to the new scheme.

Thousands of letters went out to supporters. The latest information is that by the 23 October over 550 letters had been received by the Council's planning department. On the 23rd itself, two days after the main SOS mailing went out, about 250 letters arrived of which all but three were opposed to the scheme.

SOS campaigners also took to the streets, Western Road to be precise. On a wet and windy weekend they talked to shoppers and showed them photomontages of the new proposals. Almost everyone who stopped to look agreed that the seafront must be saved from this appalling scheme. Over 800 people signed a petition to that effect.

So who wants this development?

St Modwen wants it because they think it will be a profitable development in a prime site. The West Pier Trust wants it because they think that the Pier must be saved at any cost.

Both these organisations claim that their plans command wide support. But where is the evidence?

The SOS campaign has proved that the people of Brighton and Hove don't support these plans. There is real evidence of this in the form of signed letters to the Council and names on a petition.

Campaigning doesn't come cheap!

The SOS campaign has been expensive. The main costs are printing and postage but there are plenty of other expenses as well. At the AGM in March members supported the idea that the Society should use part of the Regency Square Improvement Fund to meet these costs.

£3,000 was transferred from the fund after the AGM to cover costs which had already been incurred. Since then the campaign has continued and a farther large mailing was sent out to encourage objections to the amended plans.

So the committee has decided to transfer a further £2,500 to cover these costs. The endless hours of voluntary work and enthusiasm contributed by the campaign's supporters are, of course, priceless.

Thanks!

Many thanks to Matt Easteal, the Council's enforcement officer. He has the unenviable task of trying to stop people dumping rubbish in the streets on non collection days.

Members who contact him with reports of dumped rubbish have been impressed with the speed of response. Rubbish is usually removed within hours.

Leaflets have been circulated giving the new rubbish collection days. Misleading signs on the lamp posts stating the old collection days have, at last. been removed. New ones would be useful saying what the new days are (Tuesday in Stone St and Castle St and Monday in the squares and Cannon Place).

Unfortunately the rubbish bags keep on appearing! If you see rubbish dumped on the wrong days, let the Council know by contacting Matt Easteal:

Mobile: 07787 150137
Office 01273 292200
email matt.easteal@brighton-hove.gov.uk

More Flats in Castle Street

Plans have been submitted for a four storey building on the site of the former road sweepers' yard. It will provide eight units of social housing. We are looking at the detail of the proposed development.

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