Sign for the Hippodrome

An e-petition asking Brighton & Hove City Council to do all it can to keep alive the Hippodrome for live performances is now on the Council's website at
http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?Id=400

Saving the Hippodrome for live performance

This is the wording of the e-petition submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council to appear on its website. Assuming it is accepted, it will appear at http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgePetitionListDisplay.aspx

We the undersigned petition the council to  use its best endeavours and take every opportunity to bring the Hippodrome in Middle Street back into use as a versatile space for live performances in accordance with aspirations expressed in the CP5 Culture and Tourism section of the proposed City Plan (February 2013).

As a Grade II* listed building with an interior of national historic importance, the Hippodrome is the only surviving space of its kind and size in the city. It is top of the Theatre Trust’s list of English theatre buildings at risk.

In seeking to promote cultural tourism, the City Council should be aware of the need for a larger theatre capable of attracting top-class theatrical, musical and dance productions. The Hippodrome could be used in a variety of modes: as a proscenium theatre, as a theatre-in-the-round or with a thrust or open stage, or for ‘circus’ type of performance, similar to the Roundhouse in Camden, London.

Such a venue would significantly enhance the city’s appeal to visitors, attracting  audiences from across a wide area, including London, helping to make Brighton the principal cultural hub of the south-east region. It should be recognised that converting the space into a multi-screen cinema would not contribute anything to this aspiration. Indeed, over-provision of cinemas, leading to unsustainable competition, could lead to a net loss of venues.

Watch @DavidF_Brighton on Twitter for news about the petition going live.
TTFN

Transport for delight

The good citizens of Brighton and Hove have many bees in bonnets about various aspects of traffic and transport in the city: the 20mph speed limit, exorbitant car park charges, town-centre congestion, lack of a park-and-ride scheme, expensive and underused cycle lanes, high bus fares, parking zones, conflicts for space between cars, cycles and pedestrians, etc, etc, and, crucially for a tourist centre, the alienation of visitors.

Not only does this show how much the general public and local businesses are concerned about these issues, it is clear evidence that the city lacks a coherent and integrated transport, traffic and parking policy. Brighton and Hove seems to be slipping inexorably behind other English towns and cities.

This is not an easy matter, which may explain why successive administrations have failed to tackle it. Fear of upsetting one or other of the conflicting interests is an inevitable political reaction.

So I am proposing an Independent Transport Commission and have posted an epetition on the Brighton and Hove City Council's website, which you can access (and SIGN!) here: http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=398&RPID=10939932&HPID=10939932

This is what it says:
We the undersigned petition the council to appoint an independent transport commission to apply some bold and imaginative thinking in drawing up a comprehensive, integrated plan for the city's public transport, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. 

The city's traffic, transport and parking problems are tackled, if at all, in piecemeal fashion. The 20mph speed limit, exorbitant car park charges, town-centre congestion, lack of a park-and-ride scheme, expensive and underused cycle lanes, high bus fares, parking zones and, crucially for a tourist centre, the alienation of visitors are all subjects of regular comments and complaints in the press and in other e-petitions.

All of these are symptoms of the lack of a coherent transport, traffic and parking policy. 

Successive administrations have failed to tackle the issues together in a bold and creative way. As a result, Brighton and Hove seems to be slipping inexorably behind other English towns and cities.
Effective management of the urban infrastructure is vital to the city’s future prosperity and quality of life. Too long has this been fudged and sidelined. Let’s make this the top priority at the next local elections. 

The petition will be considered by Full Council on 30 January 2014. 

There are no easy answers and no scheme will be perfect for everyone.  If you think this is a Good Idea, please sign. Tell others about it. Tweet and re-tweet. If all those who are unhappy about the various aspects of an unjoined-up policy were themselves to join up and urge the Council to be positive and adventurous we might get somewhere—like, around the city without so many hassles.

TTFN

What happened next

OK, so it's taken only three years and nine months to update the last post. For the record, you can read about the outcome of the successful campaign to save the Brighton History Centre at http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=83. This is reported to celebrate the revival of the Grumpy Old voter blog and as a reminder that citizen power can be effective. Watch this space.
TTFN

Save Brighton History Centre

Time to get back on the trail. There is so much that is not being done and so much that is being done wrong. All rather parochial perhaps, but for those of us who live in Brighton & Hove these are important issues.

To start catching up with pressing issues:
The council cabinet voted on 9 December to close the Brighton History Centre. This is a wonderful facility, full of all the resources the city owns in a purpose-converted space and with an experienced expert and helpful staff. It opened in the former reference library in summer 2002 and has featured on the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?

It is probably underused because it is barely publicised. People I have taken there—including keen members of Friends of the Royal Pavilion and Museums (ie, friends of the estimable branch of city government that runs the Centre)—have been amazed at its existence. I have used it frequently and intend to use it a lot more in the near future for research on a book I have scheduled for this coming spring about one of the key aspects of the city's history and culture. The book would still appear without the Centre's existence but it would not contain much of the information.

More important is a letter to The Argus from Tim Carder, author of the incomparable Encyclopaedia of Brighton. He argues that this and his other books were only possible because of the resources that are now in the Centre. Ironically, the new edition of the Encyclopaedia is to be published in May by the City Libraries, who repay his efforts (and mine, come to that) by closing the Centre that makes such things possible.

The book I am soon to publish will make a small contribution to promoting the city's cultural tourism. A film festival I am organising for next year's festival fringe—in premises that are owned by the same council department as the BHC—directly links research done at the BHC to cultural events. We have applied for lottery funding with a specific aim of attracting visitors to the city. The BHC has been vital to allowing these things to happen.

So I am in the process of setting up an epetition that will be hidden away on the Brighton & Hove Council website. Watch this space for details.

Meanwhile, to combat the council's argument that the BHC is underused (not helped by their hiding it away with minimal publicity), go and use it. Read the old newspapers on microfilm. They are unbelievably fascinating. Look in the old street directories to see who lived in your house years ago. Enjoy (while you can)!