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

Into the last week

Days to election: 7

One week from now the polls will be closed and David Dimbleby will be presenting the television results programme that will largely aggregate the whole of the United Kingdom, effectively diminishing the significance of the local nature of the election. For the next seven days, however, the elections will be fought at local level.

Or will they? So far this household has received two Conservative leaflets. And that's it. Nothing from any of the other four parties contesting the ward. No door-step canvassers, no telephone calls, no e-mails, no personal letters from candidates or even from Tony Blair or David Cameron.

There is still time for parties and candidates to try to influence my vote. But I don't think I am being peevish for believing that as far as politicians go, I really don't matter, any more than voters in all but marginal wards and constituencies have mattered for some elections past. Funny then that the only ones to make the effort at communication around here are the incumbents. If they are afraid of losing, the evidence so far is that have little to fear. Unfortunately.

Friends in different wards of the city have told me during the past few days that they have had visits from Conservative, Green, Lib Dem and Labour canvassers (each in a different ward, it should be said). One received a Labour leaflet. Maybe the parties are regarding the outcome in this ward as a foregone conclusion. They shouldn't take so much for granted. Even if they have limited resources for electioneering, they should be making an effort.

Perhaps by not canvassing they are actually hoping to avoid disturbing the air of apathy that they have worked so hard to engender. Then they can be elected by a percentage of the electorate that could sink to single figures. Work it out: one out of five candidates can be elected with 21 per cent of votes in a typical turnout of 30 per cent. That's 6.3 per cent in favour of the winner. Even in the unlikely even of a candidate getting half the votes in a five-way contest barely amounts to 15 per cent support. That is shameful and outrageous.

So here's my dilemma: if candidates can't be bothered to tell me that they exist, still less what their policies might be, should I even consider voting for them? Vote I certainly shall, as I always have. But the degree of resentment I feel towards politicians will go up yet another notch, my trust in politicians and the efficacy of 'democracy' will be eroded still further. Just as, I suspect, it has been for the vast majority of the electorate who probably won't go out and vote next Thursday. We shall have only ourselves to blame. We get the politicians we deserve and as of now I don't think we deserve any of them. We'll still get them.