A few years a go I created some new pages on the ‘New England Quater’, on the site of some old railway works next to Brighton station and near me. Originally the pages just had some photos of how the site looked before work started, and at various stages since (stupidly I normally took this late in the day as the sun was setting which produced poor photos), however at the time I couldn’t find any website providing general information on the project so provided some background and useful links. Since then there has been much more information put on to the web (and lot of information removed as well).

Anyway, I write this as I’ve noticed that the council have put out a report this year reviewing the current state of play, see the link ‘briefing note 2008′.

First of all, click on this (it may be Microsoft but it is more powerful than google maps, it pains me to write).

Very near to me there is a newsagent . I like this, in fact it is one of the reasons why I chose to live here. 20 seconds away is also a deli, off-licence, and video rental. Now there is also two hardware stores (serious DIY stores), a greasy spoon cafe and two bathroom stores within the same walking distance, but I don’t use those

I also have a couple of Indians, two chinese, a fish n chips, pizza/burger/kebab and various other misc stores (including Relate, a costume shop, two motorbike shops, a postcard shop(?), a alternative health shop… you get the picture!). The only things I lack is a decent restaurant and all day cafe.

Now, back to the point Chris, I mentioned a Newsagent, a medium sized one, fairly well stocked and open to 7 or 8pm (1 on the map). Further down the road is another one, run by a quiet Indian family, it’s small and in need to a good refurbishment (but you sense they have never done the level of business to do such things) (2 on the map). Open until 8 or 9pm. Opposite them is a post office selling similar sort of things, open during the day only.

And that was the way of the world. The key here is that though it is a busy road (it’s the A23), the traffic doesn’t really stop and the catchment area isn’t great. You basically want houses all around, 360 degress. There are basically no houses one side of the road (a couple of small streets) and while on the other side there is a large area of housing, the layout of roads means they will always pass a Newsagents before reaching the Preston road.

About a year a go a shop opened called Africmart. This was an odd shop, run by a guy who looks like a huge but friendly bouncer . The store sells some vegetables and fairly common food and also much which is obviously more common to those who are from Africa. He never seems busy but the shop seems like a good thing.

Then recently a new store opened just a few steps away from this shop and the small newsagent. It sells various international foods and also some bog standard stuff such as milk (and also some basic newsagent essentials).

It’s getting cosy, the small trade the newsagent would do is now being shared by these two new shops especially on the food side.

Now, another shop has just opened ‘top news’ a weird thing, a large sparse shop which seems to sell itself on traditional newsagent creditials (we sell newspapers, snacks, magazines, grociers etc) but looks to have a strong chinese slant. What were they thinking?! “hmm let’s open a newsagent” “where shall we put it in Brighton?” “why don’t we place it next to the three other places selling the same thing!”. They are advertising 24/7 opening (impressive and useful) but they are going to struggle to do business with so many selling basically the same thing next door.

Finally, this week, another new store has opened, this is again a food convience store, but also a strong slant on drink as well (a year a go I was worried by sole local off licence would shut when unwins went bust, now I have endless shops selling liquids to destroy my liver). The street with limited footfall, no parking and meters away from a main shopping street now has many shops all with a slightly different slant but basically overlaping.

As you may guess from my tone I feel a little sorry for the small old newsagent that is stuck in the middle. They never did a huge trade to start with, worked long hours, and this must be hurting. Every time I walk in either a young quiet chap or an oldish man is a cartakers coat with a very slight build stand behind a old tiny desk with a little till on it and I also feel rather bad for only buying some milk. I wish them good luck!

See this Argus article: New council leader spells out his party’s priorities, from the article:

• Review Labour’s plans for a rapid transport bus system while re-examining the monorail project
• Revisit the controversial school lottery scheme which has divided the city
• Push for underground car parks in new developments to ensure extra homes do not add pressure to the already overstretched road network, and
• Concentrate on delivering less congestion by removing build-outs while putting plans for a park and ride on the back burner.

OK. Council Tax, sounds good but what will need to be cut (unless we can find savings, or the increase in the number of homes brings about a big enough increase to sustain things).

Monorail, very little on the web, seems to be between Palace pier and Marina, the same route as the Volks railway, sounds fine, but hardly the saviour of city wide transport problems.

School lottery. No real view, I respect the council for making a tough decision and not being shy of a radical and new approach (which they must have known would get a bad press), it stops those with money buying a place at a good school then it is a step towards equality for all, though have no real problem with a new council wanting to review such a controversial decision.

‘Removing build-outs’? I’m presuming this means no more extensions to buildings, I’m not sure. And if so, not sure this is the answer to problems. He does say they are not anti-development nor anti-progress, which is good, but the proof is in the pudding. And it has been shown with the last council that strong planning controls and vision (albeit through specialist urban planning contractors) can lead to great regeneration of areas (such as the New England Quarter, Jubilee library area), I hope this continues, rather than just allowing the higher bidder to do what they want, as if often the case in so many towns.

My thoughts: We have a successful city with a great reputation (cultural, vibrant, alternative, anything-goes, party, arty, rich&poor) which we need to keep and build on, we need to redevelop key sites such as the marina, Brighton centre and King Alfred being ambitious, daring and original, and thinking about how these developments provide space and interconnect with adjacent areas. And we need to attract companies to set up base in the town, with some bias I suggest blue chip, web/tech companies are ideally suited to the city and attract those with a high disposal-able income, same is true for law and financial firms. Finally, if there is one negative aspect of Brighton, it can look dirty at times, and work needs to continue to clean it up.

The Tory’s have a majority, but not overall control. How? Look around you and play spot the tory voter. Sure there are quite a few well off people, but vastly out numbered by those who look ‘brighton-ish’, students and others who just don’t look like tory voters (of course, plenty of the well off, business types also vote labour, especially in Brighton). I just don’t walk around town and think that the majority of people I see are likely to vote tory (yes I know how stupid that sounds, can’t judge by looks).

I live in the Preston Park ward in Brighton for the May 2007 elections.

A couple of days a go I had received anything from any party so went for a look on the net.

• Labour
• Conservatives: Two sites [here and here] neither of which mentions the local elections or what they stand for. Not impressed.
• Lib Dem
• Green Party

What do I consider when deciding my vote?

• Policies of the LOCAL party
• My perception of their ability to run the council
• Candidates of my ward (Preston Park)
• Not as a protest vote or as a message to the national parties

My choice is Labour: They have done a good job in the last few years (though no party has overall control, they have the majority). I like the fact that the council has been progressive, the sucess of the Jubilee library as one of the first PPP projects to produce such an impressive building can not be over rated. In fact the whole area around the library has been handled well and created a pleasant area of town.

Likewise, plans for the marina (several of them), the King Alfred centre redevelopment, the Brighton centre and the New England Quarter near the station have all shown they are capable of allowing developments that are impressive, well thought out and radical. By this I mean they think of public spaces, impressive buildings and affordable housing where as other councils seem to just sell of the land to the first bidder often leading to nasty looking buildings and car-centric spaces. These developments help to ensure that Brighton stays as one of the most popular places in the south of England and attract new business and people to help boost the local economy. I was also slightly proud that Brighton was the first to make radical changes to it’s school admisions policy. Love it or hate it (seems fair to me), I liked the fact we took the lead! Though I was not impressed by the dirty tatics Labour used to get it through.

People are often cynical of election material, as promises that are never met (the same is true with the Divid Cameron’s annoucements!), but i find it important as it sets the general direction that a party would head in.

The Conservatives have not put anything through my door or seem to have an up to date website (odd as Brighton is not a lost cause for them so why are they not bothering?). I can’t comment on their policies though I would worry about them giving in to NIMBYs when it came to ambitious plans, opting for safe (read boring) options for new developments and being impressed more by big cheques when deciding on new developments, rather than the right mix of social spaces and affordable housing.

The Greens are more impressive this time around compared to the last. They have some good ideas, they say that “We support the principle of liberalisation of licensing hours” in regard to later opening hours for pubs, but would inform local resisdents of new applications (presumably more so than the current requirements), this seems sensible.

They talk about animal rights, I’m pleased to see this sounds like sensible plans rather than extremist or uninformed, though they talk about animal experiements and the Universities, again, the talk is moderate, but could be a slippery slope to stronger action. My problem with the greens is that their ideas are often not pratical. One comment I read said they were against park and ride schemes (presumably because it still involves a car) perhaps forgetting that many people outside of Brighton do not live near a train station or bus stop.

Another example is the New England Quarter Development, this scheme is impressive, the Sainsburys is almost totally underground (including small car park) with flats built on top and lots of pedestrian space around it. But the Greens weren’t happy, a big nasty supermarket! Even though it is a trillion times better than the one it replaced (which I swear Sainsburys HQ forgot even existed), the old one being on a busy main road (London Road), small paths and - while at one point years a go was a major shopping road - is now basically full of pound shops, and other not very impressive odds and ends. The Greens had an issue with the supermaket moving a few hundred yards, in real live nothing can be done to save London Road and the old store was useless.

Finally theLib dems are okay but nothing special, and their plans on the website are more long term and natioon (replace the council tax) than others.

I know at the top I also said that I consider my actual candidates, which I wont mention here as I think this is long enough, annoyingly there is little on the websites and printed material to really draw any conclusions.

FIP is basically the world’s best radio station. Fact. It plays a random mix of decent new music, jazz, classical, more cool music, with no adverts, or DJs, or anything except a news bulletin at the totally logical time of 50 minutes past the hour.

Oh and the news bulletin is in French (language of inferior foreign types). But that maybe due to it being a French station. But we could pick it up in Brighton. We don’t want to get too technical about it but it had something to do with the sea being very flat between France and Brighton. or something.

It grew a large cult (is that possible?) status and I listened to it quite a bit for the 5 years I’ve been here.

Then one day i pressed the little button on my hifi to listen to its crazy little mix, and all I got was the sound of static. French technology huh, well what would you expect but unreliable broadcasting, they were probably on strike. probably blocking the ports as well.

But the static continued. I had no choice, I turned to my friend to find out what was going on.

I found other lost souls like here and here.

But most of all I found out FIP in Brighton wasn’t totally down to the sea being flat between here and there, and more to do with a nice chap broadcasting it from his flat for the last few years. Someone not nice (you know, Hitler, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Diana, etc) told teacher, teacher shutdown the transmitter that made FIP come all the way across the big flat sea.

Now what are we meant to do, I’m just going to resort to CDs or listen to it online, or listen to radio 4. ahhh yes, nice radio 4. Can’t beat it. Oooh time for a nice cup of tea. (oh and some of those links back there describe it all far better than me and use the same oh-so-clever title)