BUT WHO’S DEALING THE CARDS?
Our Broken Brighton crisis issue last month certainly lit a few fuses among our readers – it was by far the biggest response we’ve ever had and we’ve included some of the comments that wouldn’t fit on the Letters page below. It seems you’re not happy either about the way our city is being run and planned for the future, and it doesn’t stop there. Since going to press we’ve had a couple of updates on moves to further flatten Brighton’s character.
LIDO LAMENT
Saltdean Lido is one of the few remaining outdoor pools left in the UK, designed and built in 1937-8 and featured in the Design Museum as a Grade II listed classic of the Art Deco movement. Over the years it’s been left to rot instead of revered as a national treasure which, when up and running, is surely the most beautiful seaside attraction the UK has to offer. So, the plan is to restore it to its pre-war beauty, bring the tourists back to Saltdean and generally celebrate this one-of-a-kind lido. Well, actually, no. The plan is, with something of a depressing inevitability about it, to fill the pool in and turn the façade into the frontage for 102 flats. But hey, you might say – Brighton needs affordable housing. Well, yes it does, but affordable housing tends not to be on the seafront in a listed Art Deco building. These are presumably going to end up as expensive second homes, empty all week and all winter. Dip your toe into the campaign to save the lido at saltdeanlidocampaign.org.
PUB PROTEST
JD Wetherspoon has submitted its application to take over The Gentlemen’s Turf in North Street and pinned it to the door. Now, this is an area protected by its inclusion in the Cumulative Impact Zone. This zone is an area effectively been cordoned off as already having enough pubs, clubs and off licences. Community groups protested against the application, agreeing that the area just doesn’t need a big pub knocking out cheap booze until 1.30am at the weekend. So, the public don’t want it, the council can’t legally approve it. End of story, right? Wrong. Tory councillor Denise Cobb, chairwoman of the licensing panel, waved it through once the opening hours were agreed. According to her statement it was felt that since the premises had already been a licence holder, it was a good idea to issue a new one to the budget booze vendors. Cheers!
HIGH-MINDED SOCIETY
It’s not all bad news though. The Brighton Society (brighton-society.org.uk) makes it their business to conserve and improve the amenities of Brighton & Hove. They’ve been instrumental in gathering opposition to the dumbest schemes – an elevated road through North Laine? – and it’s this notion of sensible and selective opposition that’s important. No one objects to development or new builds as long as they’re sensible and in keeping with their surroundings, but plans seem to be submitted like a bureaucratic haggle – they often start out ridiculously awful in the hope that a compromise will be met, or, better still, no one bothers to oppose them. Various local oppositions to Tesco, Starbucks and Wetherspoon’s have of course ended up unsuccessful, but protest remains the trump card up the public’s sleeve when playing with an apparently stacked deck against poker-faced corporations.
