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Newsletter 223 - August 2007

In this issue:

• Weapon Store in Regency Square
• Meanwhile in Preston Street
• Keep your eye on the ball game signs!
• Peregrines Cut Off
• Jammy Donut
• Council fixer
• No Lights? Action!
• Where am I?
• Water works
• Big bins are back of the horizon

Weapon Store in Regency Square

Outside the Regency Tavern there are two bins on the pavement used to store trade waste. One contains glass for recycling and is supposed to be kept locked for safety.

At about midnight on a recent Sunday evening a crowd of young people were arguing nearby, allegedly about a theft of a mobile phone. They kicked over the glass recycling bin and started fighting using glass from the bin as weapons.

The police received ten separate calls about the disturbance. Two people were arrested and there were some slight injuries.

Why does the Regency Tavern need to store its rubbish on the pavement? There has been a public house operating from these premises for over a century but it is only recently that these bins have appeared.

Last year we asked the Council to look at a number of locations where trade waste is stored in the street. In the case of the Regency Tavern they decided to allow it, provided the glass recycling bin was locked. Their reasoning was that the bins were not causing an obstruction. If the bin for glass was locked on the night of the fighting, the lock was clearly not adequate.

We have asked the Council to reconsider this decision. Private residents are not allowed to store their rubbish in the street, so why should businesses?

Meanwhile in Preston Street

The Council also looked at the Esca bar on the corner of Preston Street and Regency Square. Their two large bins block the pavement, making it impossible for prams or wheelchairs to get by.

A Council enforcement officer asked the bar to re-locate the bins, but they are still in the same place, and are now surrounded by graffiti. We have asked local councillor, Hermione Roy, if she can encourage some action to have them moved and the graffiti cleaned up.

Keep your eye on the ball game signs!

We have asked the Council to consider allowing ball games on the lower two greens. We are also want better signs on the top green to discourage people from kicking a ball around; the reason for this is so that people can sit on the grass, and to protect the planting from damage.

It might also be possible to create a small bed in the centre of the grass on the top green. This could be planted with low level shrubs, as a further encouragement for would-be footballers to move the lower greens.

The Council wants to find out local people's opinion of these ideas. What do you think? Please let us know, or email our local councillor, Hermione Roy (hermione.roy@brighton-hove.gov.uk).

A new bed in the middle of the top green of Regency Square with some small shrubs might discourage football and make it a nicer place to sit. What do you think?

Peregrines Cut Off

We put a video camera in the peregrine falcons' nest box on Sussex Heights earlier in the year. As a result, we have had real-time pictures of the birds and their chicks on the web site. Unfortunately the camera has now been turned off by contractors who are repairing the roof.

We plan to turn the camera on again next spring in the hope that the birds will be producing yet more chicks.

Jammy Donut

The i360 viewing platform planned for the shore end of the West Pier has, in the past, been likened to a large donut on a pole.

It is now clear that the donut comes with jam. As we all know jam is never available today, only tomorrow. So the planned start date of July 23rd came and went without any sign of anything tasty. Work on the donut is now planned to start on August 20th.

Council fixer

Brighton and Hove Council, like most local authorities, is a huge organisation, divided into separate departments. Often it seems that some departments don't know what other departments are doing, let alone try to work with them.

So it is good to learn that there are people employed by the Council specially to overcome this problem. Henry Christie is one such person, and your committee had a very useful meeting with him towards the end of last month.

Henry is a member of the environment improvement team in the Public Safety Division. His job is to look for ways in which improvements to the environment can help solve problems such as anti-social behaviour. His brief is to work with whichever departments in the Council can contribute to solving a problem.

He has already picked up suggestions made by our society about poor lighting around the Regency Tavern, and we now have additional lights.

We discussed a number of other problems with him. He is looking at the issue of pubs storing glass recycling bins in public, and at our proposal for a central area of planting on the top green in Regency Square (see above).

Henry has a very direct approach to problem solving and he encourages other to do the same. For example, we talked with him about rubbish dumped in the street on the wrong day. His response was "Do you know who dumped it? If so, speak to them and tell them which day collections are made. If not, report it to Cityclean so their enforcement officers can try to find out who dumped it (cityclean@brighton-hove.gov.uk 01273 292929).

You can contact Henry yourself if you want to talk to him about a problem near you (henry.christie@brighton-hove.gov.uk 01273 293927).

No Lights? Action!

Several of the lights on the seafront near the bottom of Regency Square and the Al Fresco restaurant have been out of action for some time.

We raised this problem with the Council and have had a reply from Paul Kent the engineer involved. He has discovered that the supply cables to these lamps are failing in places.

Nothing short of a major re-wire will solve the problem, which probably explains why the fault has not been fixed quickly. However, an order has now been issued to the Council's contractor. The work should be completed in three to four weeks, provided there are no problems.

Where am I?

Talk to a council officer these days and they will quite probably drop the word "legibility" into the conversation somewhere. It is one of the latest buzz words, and it refers to how people know where they are in a town (or something like that).

Street name signs are an essential element of legibility (translation: they are important). The Council is currently carrying out a survey of central Brighton to see where signs are missing or damaged.
Our proposals for new signs in Regency Square, Castle and Stone Streets) will be considered as part of this process.

Water works

Southern Water will be digging holes in Regency Square from 13 August for about twenty weeks. Supplies to premises will be cut off for short periods but 48 hours notice will be given in each case. For more information call 0845 2780845.

Big bins are back of the horizon

It seems a long time since we heard anything about communal bins. There were plans to put them all over the place but so far they have not got beyond the original 24 trial streets.

A report in the Argus recently suggests that this is all going to change. A further 557 bins are to be located throughout the central area from Hove to Kemp Town.

We opposed these bins when they were first suggested. They are unsightly and encourage fly tipping. No one ' wants one outside their home. They represent yet another reduction in the level of service provided by the Council: instead of Council workers coming to remove our rubbish, we have to carry it to a public bin, often a difficult task for the less able bodied amongst us.

Regency Square was originally exempted from the scheme because of its prime position on the sea front. We are trying to find out where bins will be put in our area.

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