A new survey suggests that Brighton has shaken off its raffish reputation and is now considered one of the world’s safest tourist destinations.
Playwright and journalist Keith Waterhouse famously wrote: “Brighton is a town that always looks as if it is helping police with their inquiries.”
But this week it has come fourth in a table of popular international destinations considered safe in a Post Office survey of 2,075 UK adults, with 62 per cent seeing it as safe and just 6 per cent as risky.
As you would expect from a UK survey, the safe list was dominated by UK cities, with York coming out on top, followed by Edinburgh and Bath. The least safe were Cairo, Bangkok, Istanbul and Marrakech.
Soozie Campbell, chair of the Brighton Tourism Alliance, said: “Brighton is a lot safer than it was. And even when it seemed violent it was usually Brighton natives fighting with other Brighton natives so visitors were always quite safe.
“We have heightened security in all the night clubs and on the street at night. Also the Business Improvement District has a security patrol that we set up back in 2006.
“We are still fighting to shake off the old image of the mods and rockers and the tough but cool legend of Pinkie (Brighton Rock) and the gangland thugs of the sixties.
“The problem we have now is under-aged drinking. This in my view has been brought on by a heavy-handed approach on confiscation of licences, which means there is nowhere for 15 to 18-year-olds to go to have a good time.
“So they end up drinking neat spirits on the beach and come in to cause havoc in town when they are out of their minds.”
Where is Soozie Campbell coming from????
Since the Greens came to power a CIZ (Cumulative Impact Zone has been introduced to restrict new licensing of outlets wanting to sell alcohol within a widened area that included a section of Western Road, Hove which residents campaigned heavily to get.
Her idea that kids 15-18 are deprived of underage drinking in establishments because they are losing their licences beggars belief.
Instead of the city looking like a place that is helping police with its enquiries, it is like Magaluf at night in some places, on the beach and around Medina Terrace lawns because of both drunken ‘yoof’ and the hen and stag trade that targets the city for its antisocial behaviours.