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Newsletter 183 - March 2003

In this issue:

• Annual General Meeting
• Committee Report on the Year
• Annual Accounts
• Treasurer's Report
• Elections

Annual General Meeting

The Society's 24th Annual General Meeting will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday 27 March 2003 in the Chartwell Room at the Hilton Metropole Hotel.

Agenda

1. Minutes of the Previous AGM
2. Committee Report for the Year
3. Treasurer's Report & Annual Accounts
4. Subscription Rates for 2004
5. Election of Officers and Committee

After the formal agenda there will be a chance for members to raise any issues they wish to discuss.

Our guest for the evening will be PC Matt Ebeling of Brighton Police. He will tell us about local police initiatives and neighbourhood watch schemes. He will also be happy to discuss issues, which members want to raise.

Refreshments will be served and there will be a raffle.

Committee Report on the Year

The year just ended has been one of the Society's busiest for a long time.

Save Our Seafront: the campaign to prevent the proposed development either side of the West Pier has been our major activity throughout the year. Committee, members Clive Buxton and Sue Paskins have worked long and hard as leading member of the campaign. They have been supported by many other members who have stuffed envelopes, handed out leaflets, collected signatures etc.

The campaign received bad news at the end of February when the Council's planning committee announced that it was "minded" to consent to the planning application. The final decision rests with the Secretary of State.

Looking back it is clear that, whatever the final result the campaign has been very successful in raising public awareness and mobilising opposition. Thousands of people wrote to the planning committee urging them to reject the scheme. An alternative scheme prepared by a local architect was announced at a public meeting. St Modwen's original proposals have been significantly altered as a result of public opinion.

It is disappointing that councillors have decided to support the scheme in spite of the overwhelming evidence of public opposition.

The Queen's Golden Jubilee: the weather was mixed. What else could we have expected! There was sun, wind and rain and by the end of the afternoon most people were ready to get home to warm up.

Even so we can count our jubilee party in Regency Square as a great success. There was music from Dieppe's L'Orchestre d'Harmonie, Morris dancing, a magician and a Punch a Judy show. Food and drink was in plentiful supply. And there were games for everyone, including an opportunity to throw wet sponges at our chairman!

We had plenty of visitors including the honorary French consul, a councillor from Dieppe and, of course the Mayor of Brighton and Hove.

Perhaps the most important thing about the event was the way in which people worked together, Whenever there was something, which needed doing someone offered to do it.

Is there a real community here in the heart of Brighton? Our jubilee party showed that the answer is undoubtedly yes.

www.regencybrighton.com: the Society's web site has gone from strength to strength. It is run by Brian and Andrew Smith who work very hard to add new items and keep it up to date.

Within hours of the West Pier collapse just after Christmas, there was a photograph on regencybrighton.com. The site is even attracting new members to the Society, including our first from overseas.

Rubbish bags: possibly for the first time ever we are able to report some real progress in dealing with the problem of rubbish dumped on the pavement.

This is thanks to the painstaking work of the Council's enforcement team. They respond quickly to reports of dumped rubbish. Not only do they remove it, they also search through bags to find out who has dumped them.

The problem is still not solved. But thanks to the efforts of the enforcement team and our hardworking street sweeper, things are definitely getting better.

Planning: although our thoughts have been dominated by the proposed West Pier development, there have been other planning issues that we have had to think about during the year.

We were very pleased that permission was refused for a club at 12a Regency Square. Late night drinking clubs should not be permitted in residential areas.

We were also glad that the Council listened to objections from the Society and local residents and turned down plans for a block of flats in Castle Street. The site is an old Council yard and would be ideal for residential development, but the proposed scheme was too big and was not in sympathy with surrounding buildings.

Number 128 Kings Road is a problem still to be resolved. It is a grade 2 listed building. The owners want to demolish it and build a modem block of flats. We are opposing the scheme. What does it mean to list buildings and declare a conservation area if a building like this can be demolished?

There are other ongoing problems. We have been complaining about a video camera on the front of a house in Regency Square. Although it does not have planning permission the Council seem to be unable to get it removed. We are also trying to clarify whether there is planning permission for the use of the West Pier as a car park.

Social Activities: apart from the jubilee party, members have also got together for visits to two local churches, a quiz night and breakfast at the Regency Restaurant (on the morning when the pier collapsed!).

Annual Accounts

2002/03 Income and Expenditure summary
Income	£	Expenditure	£
Subscriptions	477	Printing etc.	371
General Donations	442	Insurance	250
SOS Donations	2,149	SOS expenses	7,562
Website sponsorship	290	Website expenses	348
Jubilee party	926	Jubilee party	1,017
Other functions	69	Functions	79
Interest	13	Donations	25
Transfer (RSIF)	5,500	Surplus for the year	214
	9,866		9,866
Balance Sheet
Funds at 28/2/02	1,474	Cash & bank	2,137
Add surplus	214
Funds at 28/2/03	1,688
Advance subs	196
Advance donations	253
	2,137		2,137

Treasurer's Report

The Society's accounts this year show much larger sums than usual. This is due mainly to the funding we have provided for the Save our Seafront campaign. We have transferred £5,500 from the Regency Square Improvement Fund (RSIF) to help offset these costs. The Golden Jubilee party also cost over £1,000 but most of this was met from donations and money collected at the party.

The result is that we end the year with a modest increase in our funds of £214.

The movement on the Regency Square Improvement Fund is as follows:

Balance at 28/2/02	9,871
Add interest received	36
	9,907
Less transfer	5,500
Balance at 28/2/03	4,407

Elections

The following officers and committee members are standing for re-election:

Chairman: Roger Hinton - Regency Square
Secretary: John Gavin - Queensbury Mews
Treasurer: Andrew Walker - Chartwell Court
Members: Ron Bakere - Sussex Heights
Ros Boulden - Abbotts
Clive Buxton - Dean Street
Diana Dunn - Clarence Gardens
Tony Lowery - Metropole Court
Sue Paskins - Marlborough Street
Traude Tappin - Astra House

If you would like to stand for election or nominate someone please contact the Chairman on 01273 321794.

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