Monthly Archives: August 2017

Family Ecotherapy Walk this Friday, 1st September.

From Corinna Edwards-Colledge –

Hello all

A local Arboriculturalist and keen walker, Greg Sweeney, has been kind enough to provide a free Healthwalk with an accent on wellbeing, mindfulness and enjoyment of the local countryside, this Friday 1st September.  It’s suitable for all ages, individuals and families and is, as ever, completely FREE!   Please do join us outside Stanmer House this Friday at 11am. Full details below.

 

Best wishes

Corinna

Active for Life Manager

Healthy Lifestyles Team, Public Health

Brighton & Hove City Council, Bartholomew House, Bartholomew Square, Brighton BN1 1JE

01273 292564.

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/leisure-and-libraries/sports-and-activity/healthwalks

TW: @HealthwalksBH. FB: brightonhovehealthwalks

Healthwalks: Queens Award for Voluntary Service Winner 2014

It’s been a while … but it’s harvest time already

London Road Station Partnership Blog

All I can say is that the absence of posts on this site is testimony to the rapidity of this year’s growing season. We had a very warm spring with dry weather – watering, watering, watering. Thankfully, we now have our own water source on the platform and a super long hose. We’ve tried very hard to keep to our own harvested rain water, but the water butts ran out in May this year, and rain fall has been unpredictable. And carrying full watering cans to all our garden spaces is a real challenge with quite a few back injuries in the group. The hose has been a blessing.

The dry spring then gave way to torrential rain spells and very high winds. In June, the temperatures got up to 35C. That’s very unusual here, even on the south coast. That heat spell came just at the right time for…

View original post 399 more words

Streets Ahead

Bike rental scheme to launch on 1 September

From The Argus –

Brighton’s bike rental scheme will launch on September 1.

A total of 450 bikes will be stationed around the city for the start of the month at 30 docking stations.

A further 20 stations are still to be built.

The scheme, which is officially titled BTN BikeShare, has cost £1.45 million with Brighton and Hove City Council contributing £290,000.

To use the bikes customers will have to sign up via the official app or online – with registration already open.

The bicycles will cost the equivalent of 3p per minute to use, but there is a minimum of £1 per journey, meaning that an hour’s ride on the bike will cost £1.80.

Regular users can also get a year’s subscription for £72. However, this does not allow unlimited cycling and only allows the use of the bikes for one hour every day for the year.

The scheme is being operated by a company called Hourbike.

Owner Tim Caswell, said: “The scheme will be a very positive addition to the city, and has already largely been embraced by the community. We have seen how successful our bike share schemes have been in Reading, Oxford, and Liverpool – and these are cities that don’t have the same green credentials as Brighton and Hove, or the same bike technology.”

Speaking to The Argus, he added: “There’s a real buzz about Brighton and Hove and we are incredibly excited to be launching here”.

The majority of the docking stations are along the seafront, up towards the station and then further out towards the universities.

The bikes, which are designed by Social Bicyles (SoBi), are sponsored by Life Water UK. They feature a locking and GPS system meaning that cyclists will not have to find a docking hub to lock them up.

Among the groups to back the scheme is Coast to Capital.

Chief executive Jonathan Sharrock said: “The scheme will deliver a multitude of environmental and health benefits, create new jobs and provide an excellent green transport option.”

Reported Crime Statistics June 2017

Sussex Police have released reported crime statistics for June 2017, the latest figures available.

Click on the map for detailed information:

Crime map June 2017

Here is a brief summary of the crime information for the past two months:

May 2017 June 2017
All crime 80 74
Anti-social behaviour 28 28
Bicycle theft 3 4
Burglary 1 3
Criminal damage and arson 8 2
Drugs 1 0
Other crime 1 0
Other theft 9 5
Possession of weapons 0 0
Public order 6 3
Robbery 1 3
Shoplifting 0 2
Theft from the person 1 0
Vehicle crime 3 6
Violence and sexual offences 18 18

Please visit https://www.police.uk/shape/AnxkDj/ for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team.

 

End is nigh for ugliest building in Sussex

From The Argus –

Anston House

The clock is ticking for Sussex’s ugliest building as its demolition date draws closer.

Demolition of the infamously unaesthetic landmark Anston House, which has been leering over Preston Park in Brighton since 1969 and been vacant for almost two thirds of its existence, is due to begin later this year.

It looks set be the first of three developments worth £100 million whose construction has been held up by red tape and complex negotiations since they were given the green-light in December.

In total, the three developments, which include Station Street in Brighton and the former Texaco garage in Kingsway, Hove, will deliver almost 300 new homes, 10,000 square metres of business space and nearly 1,000 jobs on sites that have been derelict for more than half a century combined.

The planning committee decisions to grant consent to the three projects, all in excess of seven storeys, was greeted with criticism and derision in some quarters by campaigners who claimed the schemes would set a precedent for the city to be transformed into “Croydon-on-sea”.

Anston House developers First Base have been involved in complex discussions with Brighton and Hove City Council over Section 106 agreements with site preparation underway as the developers deal with a number of issues including slow worms.

But haters of the building will not get the chance for a cathartic moment watching the structure being blown to the ground. Instead its demolition will be a gradual process over a number of weeks.

The construction of its replacement will take the best part of two years, with residents due to move in in 2019.

The site next to the King Alfred in Hove is said to be “under construction” though the fenced-off site has not altered since the petrol station closed in 2015.

A nine-storey block of 55 flats and the redevelopment of the 109-year-old Alibi pub are planned for the site by Rocco Homes, which has four projects in the pipeline around Worthing, including 32 apartments in Chapel Road and 76 flats in The Causeway in Durrington.

For the long derelict corner site of Station Street, currently used as an ad-hoc car park, a seven-storey grade A office block has been granted consent.

Developer McAleer & Rushe will announce later this year when work is set to begin on the site.

A First Base spokeswoman said: “We are excited about the possibilities for Anston House which has been derelict for too long. We are in the final stages of completing the Section 106 planning agreement and have been carrying out preliminary survey work ahead of construction. It is hoped that work will start in the near future.”

 

Historic Victorian building to be transformed into 25 apartments

From The Argus –

A building used to train up scores of builders over the years is now to receive its own makeover to give it a new lease of life.

The former City College construction and trades centre in Preston Road, Brighton, is set to be transformed into 25 apartments.

Work on the transformation of the locally listed Victorian red-brick property is expected to start within the next five months and be completed by the end of next year.

Brighton-based Yelo Architects said the conversion would give house hunters the rare opportunity to secure a loft apartment in the city.

The scheme, which was granted planning consent by Brighton and Hove City Council planning committee last week, involves a mixture of one, two and three bedroom apartments.

Developers Aligned Property bought the site in October after it became surplus to the requirements of Greater Brighton Metropolitan College, formed from the merger of City College and Northbrook College.

A new £9 million training centre opened at its East Brighton campus in Wilson Avenue, Brighton, in April.

The building was used by Preston Road School for more than 50 years before its closure in 1937. It was later taken over by the Brighton Junior Technical Institute.

City regeneration council officers backed the proposal to convert the site into housing because the building had “passed its usefulness” as an educational centre.

Heritage officers, who described the 1870 building’s gables and tall chimneys as a notable feature of the city skyline, also backed the plans after later amendments.

Forty per cent of the new apartments will be affordable, five affordable rent and five shared ownership, and the scheme will also bring more than £130,000 of improvements to nearby open spaces, schools and indoor sport facilities.

The renovation will not alter the scale of the existing building but will require external renovations to replace windows and restore the original school bell while a pre-fabricated building at the rear of the site will be removed.

Andy Parsons, founder and director of Yelo Architects, said: “It is a beautiful building. We need to do very little but just reveal that beauty again.

“It has come to the end of its life as a college building because they are relocating but it will work really well as beautiful loft apartments.

“Loft apartments are not that common in Brighton so it will be a rare product coming on to the market.

“There will be little change to the exterior of the building but we will be replacing all the windows, putting the railings back in and carrying out work to the roof.

May 2017 Reported Crime Statistics

Sussex Police have released the latest reported crime statistics for May 2017,

the latest figures available.

Click on the map for detailed information.

 

Here is a brief summary of the crime information for the past two months:

April 2017 May 2017
All crime 76 80
Anti-social behaviour 21 28
Bicycle theft 5 3
Burglary 7 1
Criminal damage and arson 7 8
Drugs 1 1
Other crime 2 1
Other theft 6 9
Possession of weapons 0 0
Public order 4 6
Robbery 0 1
Shoplifting 0 0
Theft from the person 0 1
Vehicle crime 9 3
Violence and sexual offences 14 18

Please visit https://www.police.uk/shape/AnxkDj/ for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team.