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May Bank Holiday breakfast
Monday, 26 May 2008 10:00
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Tuesday, 10 Jun 2008 09:45
Newsletter 182 - February 2003
In this issue:
- Meet the Police!
- Help for Neighbourhood Watch
- Twas ever thus...
- A Welcome at St Paul's
- C'est Vrai!
- Castle Street Flats Refused
- The Battle of the Bags Goes On
- 128 Kings Road
- Replica or Restoration?
- SOS Backs New West Pier Plan
- Stick and stones...
- Our first member in the USA!
- It's that time again!
- Visit Your Local WWW Site
Meet the Police!
Our guest at the annual general meeting next month will be PC Matt Ebeling, who is our local community beat officer.
He will tell us about what the police have been doing recently to clamp down on crime in our area and to encourage the development of Neighbourhood Watch schemes.
The meeting will be at 7:30 pm on Thursday 27 March at the Metropole Hotel. Put it in your diary now!
Help for Neighbourhood Watch
A Neighbourhood Watch scheme is progressing well in Russell and Clarence Squares, co-ordinated by lan Poyser, landlord of the Pull and Pump.
The Society has donated £25 towards the cost of putting Neighbourhood Watch notices on lamposts.
Twas ever thus...
Extract from the Brighton Watch Committee minutes January 1889: letter from Mrs Porter, tenant of 67 Regency Square, complaining of annoyance caused by men standing outside her house calling a cab from Queensbury Mews whenever a cabstand on the front becomes available.
Resolved that the letter be referred to Inspector Dumfries to remedy the evil complained of as far as possible.
A Welcome at St Paul's
About a dozen members were made very welcome when we visited St Paul's church in West Street last month. It is a beautiful building and the stained glass windows are amazing.
Many thanks to Father 0'Loughlan and Yves Le Guen for telling us about the history and restoration of the building.
C'est Vrai!
Members of the Society committee spent a weekend recently by the West Pier handing out leaflets about the SOS meeting. One of them met a Frenchman who claimed that his name was Pierre West!
Castle Street Flats Refused
An application for a block of flats on the site of the former Council yard in Castle Street has been refused. The Society objected to the application.
Planning officers under delegated powers rejected it. The reasons were poor design, impact upon nearby properties, loss of employment and lack of parking.
The Battle of the Bags Goes On
Matt Easteal and the Council's enforcement team are still fighting to get rubbish bags off our streets. The Council are recruiting 5 new waste enforcement Officers to work with Matt and they will be giving priority to our area.
Meanwhile small steps forward are being made all the time. Recently an offer was made to clear a basement area for use as at bin store. At another property a notice was replaced which had been telling tenants the wrong day to put out rubbish.
128 Kings Road
The Society is represented on the Conservation Areas Advisory Group. The group has recommended the Council to refuse permission to demolish what is left of 128 Kings Road. No news yet on a decision.
Replica or Restoration?
West Pier Trust chief executive, Geoff Lockwood has taken issue with something we said in our January newsletter:
"A copy of your newsletter 181 has been passed the Trust. We rarely comment on the content of such society newsletters but your assertion that our 'plan was never to restore the pier' but to 'build a replica' is both inaccurate and highly misleading...
"Our plan has always been, and still is, to use significant parts of the historic pier in its restoration, including elements of its existing sub-structure. When the restoration is complete the public will be able to enjoy seeing and using original features in original materials.
"The implication of your newsletter that our plan is to destroy the existing pier and rebuild it just as a replica is inaccurate."
SOS Backs New West Pier Plan
The Save Our Seafront campaign has given its support to an alternative proposal for the restoration of the West Pier put forward by Birch Restorations who are a local consortium of architects, builders, engineers and accountants.
SOS held a public meeting on 5 February at which Birch were given the opportunity to explain their proposals and answer questions from the audience. The meeting took place in the Metropole Hotel and was enthusiastically supported by the local community (approximately 400 attended).
In contrast the West Pier Trust demonstrated its antipathy by boycotting the event.
The most significant difference between the Birch and St. Modwen plans is the size of the development on the foreshore. The St. Modwen scheme is more than 65% bigger than the Birch proposal, which does not obstruct the sea-view from the Upper Promenade.
It was obvious from the presentation that the philosophy behind the Birch bid was to restore the Pier to its former glorious appearance without interfering with its setting. The proposed development of the pier as a seawater spa would be an asset to the area and historically very appropriate. The vast majority of the audience clearly preferred the Birch proposals.
SOS appealed for anyone sympathetic to their cause to make their views known to the Planning Department and their local councillors.
Stick and stones...
In the latest issue of the West Pier Trust newsletter Geoff Lockwood refers disparagingly to the "remaining rump of SOS".
Whichever bit of the anatomy you choose to liken it to, there's no doubt that the SOS campaign is of considerable size and still enjoys excellent health.
And this Society is behind it all the way!
Our first member in the USA!
Yes, thanks to our web site we now have a member in Oklahoma, Clive Seymour.
Clive was born at Brighton General Hospital and was a pupil at St Margaret's School in Queensbury Mews from 1955 to 1957. His family moved around quite a bit but lived most of the time in Sillwood Road and Sillwood Place. His grandparents lived at the eastern end of the north side of Regency Square.
He has happy memories of the area: "A crowd of screaming schoolchildren was probably not a welcome sight to the neighbourhood residents but we did have a good time. The Regency Square green was basically our play ground and sports arena."
His family moved to Texas in 1957. He now lives with his wife and son in Tulsa where he practices law.
A warm welcome to the Society Clive!
It's that time again!
Many thanks to the 37 members who have already renewed their subscriptions for 2003/4. If you haven't renewed yet, please help the Society by doing it now.
Visit Your Local WWW Site
When did you last visit the Society's web site? It is being updated all the time
Recent additions include news about the West Pier and a picture and article about one of our most distinctive local buildings, the Western Pavilion in Western Terrace.