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Newsletter 199 - November 2004

In this issue:

• A Change of Date
• What Next for the West Pier?
• A Prayer Hall on Three Floors
• Season's Greetings
• Bins Bins Bins
• Farewell to Lisa

A Change of Date

The date for our winter social evening has been changed. We were originally planning to hold it on the 2nd December but we can now confirm that it will be at 7:30 pm on Wednesday 8 December.

It will be held in the Havana Club, which is in the basement of 5 Regency Square.

The main event of the evening will be a quiz entitled "A Century of Entertainment". Questions will test your knowledge of films, popular music, radio and television from throughout the last century.

Teams will be formed on the evening and everyone (members and their guests) is welcome to take part. A prize to match the glittering splendour of the occasion will be awarded to the winning team.

There will also be plenty of opportunity to chat with neighbours and catch up on the latest gossip! The bar will be open.

Come along and bring your friends (especially if they have good memories for trivia)!

What Next for the West Pier?

This is the question that everyone wants answered. So we wrote to Alan McCarthy, the Council's acting chief executive, to see how the Council views things at present. We asked some specific questions and got some fairly specific answers:

Q. Does the Council have any plans to make the Pier safe or demolish it?

A. The Pier belongs to the West Pier Trust and the Council will not press the issue so long as the Trust actively pursues restoration. If the Trust ceases to exist, legal advice would be sought on future responsibility and funding would be sought for "sensitive dismantling".

Q. What is the future for the decking at the landward end of the pier?

A. The future of this is bound up with the rest of the structure. The Council will work closely with interested parties on a solution.

Q. Does the Council have plans to improve the areas either side of the pier?

A. Yes - once it is definite that it is not needed as enabling development for the pier. Since the "Single Regeneration Budget" has now ended, the Council will need to find other funding for improvements.

Q. Will the Council need an enabling development on the site to fund the dismantling of the pier?

A. A development may be needed to fund the dismantling, and the improvements referred to in the previous question, but it would be of a much smaller scale than the (St Modwen) scheme which caused so many objections. It would be unlikely to be a "contentious" development. The controversy would no doubt be about the loss of the pier itself.

Q. Is there any chance of saving the very small pavilion still standing on the seaward end of the pier?

A. Council officers are contacting English Heritage and the Trust to see if it can be saved.

A Prayer Hall on Three Floors

It was a cold and wet Saturday morning when seven members of the society met at the mosque in Bedford Place. However, once inside we were given a warm welcome by Imam Hanif.

After removing our shoes we went into the prayer hall. This large room was previously a car showroom. It has a carpet with lines on it to show worshippers where to stand to face Mecca.

There are also clock faces giving the times for prayers. Worshipers visit up to five times a day. On festival days there could be well over 1,000 people praying together, which explains why there are two more halls above, with loudspeakers to relay the voice of the Imam as he leads prayers.

The local Muslim community has members from all parts of the Muslim world including the Indian subcontinent, south-east Asia and the Middle East.

Many thanks to Imam Hanif for showing us around the mosque and to Amir Khan of the Taj Mahal food store and committee member, Ron Bakere, for arranging the visit.

Season's Greetings

This will probably be the final newsletter of 2004. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the committee to all members!
We hope to see you at the social evening on 8th December.

Bins Bins Bins

The Council held a meeting for residents recently at which plans for new refuse collection arrangements were unveiled.

It seems that the idea of communal bins and recycling are firmly established as the way forward. This will mean that our streets are to be invaded not just by platoons of communal rubbish bins but also by whole regiments of recycling containers.

The Council has obtained the views of people in the areas where the communal bins have already been on trial. 1,520 people responded to a questionnaire. Around 90% of those replying found the bins easy to use and thought the streets were cleaner since the bins were introduced.

Views about the fact that the bins take parking spaces were split about 50:50. Some people did see some problems with the bins such as the need for more frequent emptying, fly tipping when the bins are full and the smell.

These opinions are from people who have had only rubbish bins in their areas. There has been no trial of the re-cycling scheme.

The main plans for this area include the following:

Regency Square: 4 containers outside number 59, 4 containers outside number 8, 2 outside number 37 and 2 in the north west corner

Queensbury Mews: 3 containers outside number 9

Clarence and Russell Squares and Castle and Stone Streets: at least 3 or 4 containers each

Of the people who attended the "consultation" meeting, none expressed any support for these plans. In fact many were quite horrified. The Cityclean officers who were there emphasised that there had been overwhelming support for the idea of recycling. Did those expressing that support know exactly what the re-cycling would involve?

Society secretary, John Gavin, who was at the meeting, drew attention to the recycling centre hear Montpelier Crescent. This is an appalling eyesore which is a blight on one of Brighton's finest areas of nineteenth century of townscape. The Cityclean officers agreed that they needed to get this area under control. They promised to work hard to ensure that the bins in our area were not such a mess.

The Society committee will be meeting shortly to discuss these plans and decide what response to make. The initial signs are that a number of members are very unhappy with them. If you have a view, please let us know.

Farewell to Lisa

Lisa White has done much good work in our area to reduce the amount of rubbish in the streets. This month she is leaving her job in Brighton for a new one at Crawley. We thank her for all her efforts and wish her all the very best.

Her work in this area is being taken over by Paul Hull and Michael Louge.

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