A Brighton community leader wants to know why the council’s cabinet is due to approve the outdoor events programme a week before a long-promised public meeting on the subject.
Diane Messias, founder of the Kemptown Residents Association Facebook Group, said that Brighton and Hove City Council’s approach showed a contempt for the community.
Miss Messias said that she had been fighting to persuade someone at the council, and particularly from Pride, to listen for the past eight to nine years.
Finally, a public meeting for Kemp Town residents is due to be held at St Mary’s Church, in St James’s Street, on Friday 22 November.
But before that, the council’s cabinet is being asked to approve the annual open spaces events programme for next year at a meeting tomorrow (Thursday 14 November).
A senior councillor said that the cabinet was taking a strategic decision, with many key details to be agreed between now and when the events take place.
Miss Messias said: “These events are a done deal, without any input from we residents. We’re sidelined and ignored and the ‘feedback’ meeting next week is purely for show.”
She has contacted council leader Bella Sankey, outdoor events director Ian Baird and Pride’s director of event management Jayne Babb to complain.
She said that it was wrong that the cabinet should approve scores of outdoor events next year a week before a public meeting with Kemp Town residents.
In an email, Miss Messias said: “The events are being presented to the council for approval without any reference to residents’ experience and/or complaints apart from a small petition (presented to full council by Derek Wright in October).
“This is the contempt for the people who live in what has now become Brighton’s theme park on the part of the council.”
She has written to her MP, Chris Ward, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Local Government Minister Jim McMahon about the problems caused by the many events in Kemp Town.
In her email to MPs, she said that over the past ten years residents had been subjected to “ear-splitting decibels” over successive weekends in July and August.
The noise, from sound checks to the events themselves, disturbed residents during events such as the Pride Village Street Party and the On The Beach festival.
She said: “The street party also severely restricts the civil rights of residents in the ‘exclusion zone’.
“(The zone is) prohibiting residents from free access to their homes without a wristband (a breach of the European Human Rights Convention), inviting guests to their homes without paying at least £15 per person to the Street Party organisers and from bringing perfectly legal items such as alcohol, bicycles, dogs, suitcases and backpacks larger than A4 size, into the area.
“Bags are searched, and banned items confiscated.”
The council’s acting cabinet member for culture, heritage and tourism, Mitchie Alexander, said: “A range of possible options for the future of the street party are currently being discussed with several local organisations and agencies, including Sussex Police.
“We will then outline various options which will be shared with residents and local businesses.
“It is certainly not a done deal and we will, as always, take all residents’ feedback into account. Safety is our guiding principle.
“The report going to cabinet is seeking approval for our strategic approach to securing and delivering future events in the city.
“We felt this would be useful information and context to bring to the planned meeting with Kemp Town residents so took the decision to slightly delay this meeting.
“We will keep listening to residents as plans for 2025 are finalised and approved and look forward to meeting Kemp Town residents shortly.”
The cabinet meeting is due to start at 2pm tomorrow (Thursday 14 November) at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
The public meeting with the council’s events team is due to start at 4pm on Friday 22 November at St Mary’s Church, in St James’s Street.
It is the way of the Labour Party.
Move
She’s clearly forgotten why the Kemp Town Party was brought in to begin with.
Thousands of people started congregating in Kemp Town after Pride and the numbers became unmanageable and dangerous so it was licenced and controlled.
If she has her way and it becomes ‘deregulated’ the party will happen anyway but it will be uncontrolled and will go on all night.
Interesting, because she has been told that directly before. She even left notes on Facebook of that particular discussion.
Her presentation had always been hostile, sarcastic, and microaggressive in my experience of Diane, avoid engaging with the council in any constructive way, which is a shame because there are two good points that residents of Kemptown had:
1) Ensuring they residents have access to their homes during the street party.
2) Ensuring security was adequate and trained approximately, especially in wake of some people’s experiences shared.
Probably because this topic has been discussed for an entire year already, with multiple engagement and feedback venues.
Kemptown residents association is a Facebook page set up and in my opinion, not a constituted or community group of any kind.
Therefore I struggle with the term ‘community leader’.
Better to say local resident who speaks in a personal capacity. I’m not sure how one can say they speak on behalf of a Facebook page. Odd!
Thank you. I was thinking the same thing.
How does a Facebook page constitute a community leader!
Since our Council Leader is a trained human rights lawyer, she should know that under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we, the occupants of this city, are not subservient to her Will or that of her council. In fact she, in taking up her position, has agreed to serve we, the people. All employees and Councillors of the City Council are currently in breach of both this obligation and the Nolan Principles of Public Office. They are also guilty of trying to serve two masters in the case where they have pledged allegiance to both their national political party and to the taxpaying occupants and voters of this city.