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Newsletter 244 - September 2009

In this issue:

• "O" before "I"
• The Parking Petition Goes In
• Bin Collections at Civilised Times
• Street Signs
• Multi-use in Preston Street?
• What to do with the archives?
• Street Access
• An Evening at the Theatre

"O" before "I"

Plans are afoot for the "Brighton O", a 60 metre high observation wheel, to be located on the lower promenade opposite the Metropole Hotel. It is the brain child of a local company called Paramount Attractions.

This is not just an ordinary wheel like the sort that you see at the fair. It will have no spokes, meaning that it will hardly create any restriction to views from the hotel or the seafront. The thirty two observation cabins will each seat eight people; the cabins will move around the wheel, giving views along the coast and across Brighton and Hove.

It is not intended to be a "white knuckle" attraction. Each ride will last between ten and twelve minutes and will cost between £5 and £7. There will be an audio guide playing, drawing attention to points of interest as they come into view. It will operate all the year round between 10am and 9pm.

The wheel will cost £6 million to set up. Unlike the i360, this scheme already has capital available. It will be located on Council owned land and will pay rent.
Perhaps the most important point is that planning permission, if granted will be for two years only. After that the wheel is likely to be moved to a new location away from Brighton. This means that if construction does ever start on the i360, the Brighton O will probably be gone by the time it opens for business. The two attractions will not be in competition.

You can see more details at www.brightono.com.

Paramount Attractions are currently preparing their planning application. We will be looking at it closely when it is published. In the meantime if you have any thoughts about the proposal, please let us know.

The Parking Petition Goes In

A total of 92 people have now signed our petition about parking in Regency Square. The signatures will be presented to the Council Cabinet meeting on 17 September by Councillor Jason Kitkat. We should know the result a few weeks after that.

Many thanks to everyone who signed and to those who helped collect the signatures. If anyone still has signatures to submit please return them without delay.

Bin Collections at Civilised Times

If you live within earshot of a communal bin you may have noticed that they are no longer being emptied at ridiculously early times in the morning. As a result of a request from the Society the bins are being emptied only after 7am. We have written to the Council officer concerned to thank him for this change.

He has also told us that new lids will be fitted to the bins shortly to enable them to be shut properly. We are waiting for information about when this will happen.

Street Signs

Have you noticed that the old metal street name signs are slowly disappearing from our area. They are being replaced by modern plastic ones which the Council claim are easier to read and are made of recycled material.

But hang on! This is a conservation area. Surely we should be retaining the old style of signs - which incidentally are also fairly easy to read.

We are raising this issue through the Conservation Advisory Group. We are also suggesting that signs should, where possible, be fitted at a high level to prevent them being stolen. Apparently the old metal ones can be sold on for as much as £30 each.

Multi-use in Preston Street?

Imagine Preston Street as a "shared use" area like New Road: pedestrians wandering casually all over the street; vehicles and cycles weaving their way unthreateningly amongst them; cafe tables thronged with smiling tourists sipping coffee.

Is it an appealing dream, or a nightmare? The Preston Street Traders Association hopes very much that it can happen and will help to re-generate an area which is currently suffering something of a decline.

They organised a meeting recently with Council representatives. There was even a suggestion that the multi-use design could be extended to Regency Square, Castle Street and Stone Street.

Council officers pointed out that none of this could happen without strong support from both traders and residents.

If this idea gains momentum our Society needs to form a view about whether to support, oppose or ignore it. Let us know what you think.

What to do with the archives?

Society member, Suzanne Hinton is interested in local history and has been looking at old documents about our area which are stored at the County Records Office in Lewes.

Amongst them she has found minutes and other papers about the original Regency Square Committee which existed between 1885 and 1945. This committee was set up to manage the gardens in the centre of the square after the land was transferred from the original developer to Brighton Corporation. These are fascinating to read and provide valuable material for anyone wanting to do serious historical research.

Our Society was first set up in February 1979, over thirty years ago. A lot of paper has been generated over that time.

In years to come papers relating to our own society could be of equal importance to local historians.

Suzanne has volunteered to sort these papers out so that they can be deposited at the Records Office. She already has a large pile of files to look at which include complete sets of committee and AGM minutes, newsletters and account books.

Do you have any papers relating to the society? Perhaps you have served on the committee in the past, or you have communicated with the society about something.

If you have any papers you think would be worth preserving for future researchers, please contact us.

Street Access

It is a common sight in our local streets: a commercial waste bin blocking the pavement.

The one in our photograph is at the top of Cannon Place. Anyone wanting to pass it with a wheelchair or children's buggy would probably have to go into the road. And it is on the route between disabled parking spaces and Churchill Square.

We have complained about obstructions on this piece of pavement several times and enforcement officers have spoken to the businesses concerned. This results in a short period during which bins are stored in the private yards which adjoin the pavement. But it is not long before they creep back into the public space.

What is to be done? The Council has set up a scrutiny panel to investigate issues of "street access", or rather lack of it. So far this panel has focused on "A" boards outside shops, cafes and the like.

We want the panel also to consider commercial waste bins. Our Society has been invited to present evidence at the next meeting of the panel, which is on 28 September at 5pm in Brighton Town Hall. The meeting is open to the public, so please come along if you can.

An Evening at the Theatre

The new season at the Little Theatre in Clarence Gardens starts with "Blood Brothers" (the play not the musical) by the well-known author of "Educating Rita", Willy Russell.

It is a funny but tragic story about twin brothers born into a large, working class, Liverpudlian family, and what happens when their desperate mother decides to give one of them away.

We are planning a Society trip to see the play on Thursday 5 November. It starts at 7:45pm and tickets cost £7.50.

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