Huge public opposition to extending the Pride weekend in Preston Park over two weekends

Councillors in Brighton and Hove are to consider whether Preston Park can be given over to Brighton Pride for two weekends from 2025. This would mean that the public would be denied access to the park for around 18 days (allowing for the setting up and clearing up the site). The purpose is to make the Pride weekend itself more financially viable.

I asked on various social media platforms whether commercial considerations should outweigh people’s access to the Park? 

Many people from throughout the city responded with comments like “No’ and “Too long”.  Others have called for consultation with the local community. Here is a selection of other comments:

I’m not anti Pride, just think it’s got so big now it needs a bigger space. Plus the park is used by hundreds of people on the weekend for sports and dog walking – PB Preston Village

It is not just access to park that is lost. Residents could not go out or get home. Carers could not access the people they were to offer care to in the 15 min time slots carers have if having to park at Bowls club and walk. And it took an hour for a pride worker to come to guide cars in and out. – GH Preston Village

Having one of our city’s largest parks essentially privatised for three weeks  is a terrible idea.  Surely if the event has become this big a more suitable venue should be found that can accommodate it. – DC Hove Station

Consulting the local residents and park users really needs to happen here. … Also needs a bigger space than Preston Park so they do not shut the whole park just half a park. GH Preston Village

I thought Pride was about diversity and inclusiveness. A two-weekend gig will cause us locals to have to change our lifestyle and cause a big strain on our amenities and already dysfunctional public transport. Waterhall with dedicated travel solutions makes more sense to me. – AG Old Patcham

The park is for the use of the public which is maintained through local taxes so no this as a commercial venture should not be allowed – SM Whitehawk

… Why allow more? Also, damage to the park will increase. There is already damage to the grass – but if items are set up and not moved for another week (which is the aim to share set up costs) then the grass will be further damaged. Yes, it can be repaired but this increases the time that the park isn’t available to everyone – NH Hollingdean 

I think one weekend for Pride is ok but two is excessive the park is used year round by lots of local society events tbh it’s only really the Saturday that’s a great success Sunday is never well attended ,it also makes it hard for residents to get in or out of Preston Park avenue. – JD Preston Park

As a local and long-time regular attendee at Pride, I have to say I agree this would be an unreasonable addititional burden on both the Park itself and on the area’s residents if this is indeed being considered. Frankly, you can have too much of even the greatest things. It’s important gay people give the same respect to others as we hope to receive ourselves. I know of several friends that have stopped attending because the hotels etc. charge premium prices over Pride, they’re not going to want to pay even more for a second weekend. – PB Hollingdean

Put simply: NO.  It’s a public park managed by the City Council. -JM Hove Station … I would ask if the council had changed its designation from a public park to a ‘to hire commercial space’. The park is well used by many people for many reasons that in itself should outweigh a commercial venture which charges for entry. I have no problem with pride but as it’s grown out of all early imagination in size and logistics … – JM Hove Station

According to the Friends of Preston Park, the original bye-laws in 1884 prohibited, among other things, “selling alcohol, preaching, setting up a stall or playing games except in the designated spaces” https://www.friendsofprestonpark.org/history/.  Make of that what you will. – TL London Road

I do feel for the residents that live by PP in my opinion it’s gone from being really a great weekend to dirty n horrible and for two weeks ouch – L-AK Hove Station

As a 40 year + resident of Preston Park I have seen Pride develop from a small well mannered event to a “monster” that disrupts residents lives makes our use of available “Green” space severely restricted and now is complaining it can’t balance its books.

If they are going to demand effectively a 20 day no go zone for Preston Park residents, what compensation are they going to offer ?20 day refund of community charge ? 20 day refund of Parking permit fees ? Compensate for disruption and inconvenience to residents lives  !. You can bet your life that the won’t compensate one iota… – DP Preston Village

No! It’s a nightmare to get in or out of the city during Pride. It’s no longer a diverse celebration but a massive rubbish tip afterwards and vile homophobic drunkeness.  Frankly, if the clowncil intend to go ahead with this money spinner there should be a visible public campaign to canvass those of us who live here and have to put up with it all. Before the zealots jump on my comments I’m labelled as part of the LGBTQ etc community although frankly, I don’t need a club or community to understand myself! – ST Coombe Road

No Thank You. Pride is all about spicy straights and furries now. Lesbians, Bisexuals and Gay men made to feel unwelcome if we don’t subscribe to the Gender Ideology promoted by Stonewall. AMcB Montpelier/Clifton Hill

It appears that our spaces are being taken over by events which is a shame particularly if this event is over such a long period – JJ Kemp Town

I live just a few hundred yards from St James’ Street and, although not really interested myself, always hope that the two or three days of the Pride street party go well, which, of course, they, by and large, do. Pride ‘weekend’ is an irritation to me in only one way: I am expected to pay to pass through or use the main shopping thoroughfare nearest my home, to visit a chemist for medicines, or to use a supermarket or shop (all of which which, in turn, seem to exist for those three days solely to supply snacks and alcohol to party participants?). I can, thankfully, live with that for a few days However, Preston Park? For eighteen days (or, in one scenario, twenty-one days)? That is a very different matter. The largest park in the city? A beautiful key, a welcoming entrance? Closed to the public for the best part of three weeks – a twentieth of the year? Purely to “ensure” a profit to a profit making enterprise? That is several steps too far. Our parks were gifted to the city as areas that provide attractive, healthy, open spaces to the city’s residents, green spaces for recreation, for calm in a busy, noisy, environment, for the good physical and mental health of all residents and visitors. Please note, gifted “for the city’s residents”, not just a select element of those residents, even if it is only for (a large) part of the year! – M F MacR-W

Councillors in Brighton and Hove are to consider whether Preston Park should be given over to Brighton Pride for two weekends

In August I asked in my weekly Argus column whether we should call time on Brighton Pride. The weekend has moved so far away from the original Lesbian and Gay Pride, even dropping the words ‘Lesbian’ and ‘Gay’ from its title. Some people have suggested the weekend has become little more than an opportunity for straight people to party under a Rainbow Flag.

Brighton Pride 2019

Of course, for many people, it is a lot more than that. It provides some people with the opportunity, sometimes for the first time, to express their sexuality in public and to March alongside other lesbian women and gay men. This is an important part of the Pride experience. 

But the ‘Pride Party’ in Preston Park has moved a million miles away from that. And for people living around Preston Park, and in 21 streets in and around St James’s Street, Pride weekend can be a nightmare. It is not just the three days of Pride weekend itself, and in the case of Preston Park, it is a total of ten or eleven days as the park is closed for recreation and dog walking.

If that wasn’t bad enough, there is a proposal going before councillors this Friday seeking approval to extend the festivities over two weekends, meaning that Preston Park will be out of bounds for almost three weeks. Organisers are hoping to spread their costs by hosting standalone events, not be part of the Pride itself, over the first weekend.

This is unacceptable and councillors for Preston Park ward and those representing surrounding areas must step in on behalf of their residents to limit the disruption and inconvenience that this would cause their constituents.

I would like to hear from those wishing to become the next MP for Brighton Pavilion (Siân Berry, Eddie Izzard, Tom Gray, Birgit Miller, Lucy Helliwell, and Ashley Ridley) whether they  support the closure of the park for commercial reasons at the expense of local people’s access to this green open space that is loved and used by thousands of people every day.

And what will local councillors do to protect this amenity for their constituents?

The councillors for Preston Park Ward are: Steve Davis (Green), Liz Loughran (Labour), and Kerry Pickett (Green).

The councillors for neighbouring wards are:

• Roundhill: Raphael Hill and Pete West (both Green)
• West Hill and North Laine: Ellen McLeay and Sue Shanks (both Green)
• Westdene and Hove Park: Samer Bagaeen, Emma Hogan and Ivan Lyon’s (all Conservative)

Time for an end to Brighton Pride: it has become toxic

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 9th August 2023)

Last Saturday, notwithstanding the rain and wind, tens of thousands of people turned out for the annual Brighton Pride. I have been on Pride marches for many years. I used to joke that I always stood out from the crowd of exotically dressed (and undressed) revellers by going, uniquely, as a boring middle-aged man.  I was told that I carried off this persona as if I lived it every day!

But I didn’t go on the march this year. I just watched some of the parade as it passed through London Road. It wasn’t the wind and rain that deterred me. I would not have gone even if it had been glorious weather.  This may be an unpopular view but I have deep concerns about what Pride has become. The level of alcohol and drug use is depressing, resulting in personal crises for some.  I know traders in London Road who dread the day, shutting up shop because trade is non-existent, because of the aggro they experience, and the open dealing of drugs.

Residents in neighbouring streets, too, do not look forward to the day, seeing their front gardens turned to public toilets and worse.  When I was at BHT Sussex, we would arrange security for our residential alcohol and drug recovery services which is on the route, such was the appalling behaviour of some revellers. 

Brighton Pride 2019

In normal years – when not impacted by rain and rail problems – the amount of plastic waste that Pride generates shames this environmentally-conscious city, and the amount of broken glass provides an ongoing hazard for dogs.  This year it was much better, partly due to the provision of bins and portaloos. Yet we have lost access to Preston Park for ten days, including the Secret Garden and The Rockery.

I think Pride has had its day and it’s time to call a halt to it.  It has become an excuse for alcohol and drug binging, of corporate posturing, and political expediency.  Businesses spare no expense to assert their support for LGBT issues. Perhaps they could rather reduce their prices or support food banks during this cost-of-living crisis.

Politicians feel obliged to attend. So do leaders of the police, fire and ambulance services. Attendance at Pride has become a shallow, tokenistic gesture for many.

It wasn’t always the event that it is today. In the 1980s I went on one of the earliest Brighton Pride marches, from Hove Town Hall to Preston Park. There were only about 200 of us marching that day. It was more of a political demonstrations. I was one of just six Brighton Borough Councillors willing to take part.

Preston Park during Pride 1992

The reception on the streets was sometimes hostile, with threats of violence and beer cans being thrown at us.  At Preston Park, there were few stalls and little celebration beyond a few truly political speeches. I have a photograph I took in the park at the end of one Pride march. There were just two stalls, one selling a publication called Daring Hearts which recorded the lesbian and gay history of Brighton and Hove from the 1950s and 60s.

Following one march, there were some outrageous homophobic statements by a Conservative Brighton councillor quoted in The Sun. In response, my Labour council colleague Jean Calder proposed, and I seconded, the first-ever pro lesbian and gay motion debated by the Council.  A few days later, Jean and I were subject to ‘loony leftie’ slurs in The Sun, a rather disturbing experience to be on the receiving end of an attack in the most widely read newspaper in the country.

Those days are happily gone. But there are now deep divisions within the LGBT communities. It can no longer be called a single community, if ever it was. There were times when lesbians were excluded from gay bars and clubs because they were women. Today Pride is far from a welcoming environment for those who question the behaviour and attitudes of some trans rights activists who aim anything but so-called ‘trans-love’ at lesbians, feminists and others who argue for and defend women-only spaces.

Originally Pride had a focus on same-sex attraction and relationships which were being vilified and needed to be defended.  Once again, same sex relationships are under attack by people who subscribe to gender ideology and who say that sex-based rights are no longer important or relevant. 

There are other events, such as Trans Pride, that allows the promotion and celebration of trans rights. I am not calling for an end to Trans Pride, but to Pride itself which has become toxic.  Let’s not pretend that Pride remains one big, happy family.

Some of the best and worst of Brighton within hours of the New Year

Having had an early night on New Year’s Eve (it is truly a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle I live) I was up and out early for a morning walk this morning (January 1st 2020). Within 30 minutes I saw some of the best and the worst of Brighton. 

As I left home, there were a young man and woman, both in their late 20s, walking past my house. He was 5 yards ahead of her and was saying over his shoulder: “You f***ing c**t. You stupid cow”. She looked as though the new year wasn’t going according to plan. What a lovely start to 2020.

Outside the Duke of York Cinema, there was a young man sleeping in the doorway of a fire exit. He didn’t look like a rough sleeper as he had no cardboard groundsheet or bedding, but looked like someone who had overindulged the night before. He won’t be feeling great today.

A Christmas tree had been dumped in the road in front of the man in the doorway.. Very considerate.

Fortunately, my next two encounters were positive. A young woman gave me a cheery: “Good morning. Happy New Year“. And a bit further along London Road I saw a dog walker who gave me a sunny: “Good morning” and a big smile. That’s more like it, I thought.

When I got to the BHT office (I wasn’t going in, honest), I saw that the front of the building had been graffitied by some juvenile inadequate. Criminal damage such as this causes means that we have to spend some of our money on covering over this vandalism rather than spending more of it on our main work of helping rough sleepers through First Base Day Centre.

There was evidence of people sleeping in tents, one outside the old Co-op in London Road, the other near Sainsbury’s in the New England Quarter. How is it that in 2020, in one of the richest cities in one of the richest countries in the world, that people are still living on our streets?

Evidence of rough sleeping reminded me, again, of the work of First Base (not to be confused with the property developers of the same name – we were the first and original First Base locally) which works with dozens of rough sleepers each day and over 1000 in the course of the last year. 

First Base provides those services that are essential in maintaining basic dignity and life for rough sleepers, such as toilets and showers, food and warm drinks. Most importantly, we help people move off the streets and into accommodation. We are not in the business merely of making life more tolerable for people on the streets but we retain a determination to see people move permanently away from rough sleeping. We provide these services not only at Christmas but throughout the year.

My spirits were lifted as I walked to one of the jewels in the crown of the city, Preston Park. I saw people running and cycling, some because that is what they always do, others because it is a New Year. I hope their resolutions last longer than mine usually do.

What ever you wish for for 2020, I hope it is a good one and that you will join me in doing whatever we can to end the scandal of rough sleeping, domestic abuse, and poverty, not just in Brighton but throughout Sussex and the UK.

To support the work of First Base, you can make a donation on our website.

Families, children: join the challenge to cycle around the world in just 12 hours!

On July 1^st, the O’Connell family in Brighton are taking part in the Greater Brighton Cycle Challenge at the Preston Park velodrome to raise funds for Brighton Housing Trust’s work at First Base Day Centre supporting homeless people. They are appealing for more families to sign up.

Daniel – who works for BHT – and son Jacob O’Connell (aged 6) will be trying to clock up the miles with laps around the velodrome. The aim of the “Around the World Challenge” is to collectively cycle the circumference of the Earth (40,075km) in a day. This is 69,215 laps!

Jacob O’Connell

Last year Jacob managed 8 laps. He said:

“It was fun last time and I want to beat daddy now I’m bigger and I’ve got a new bike from Cranks. I want to do 20 laps this time.”

Daniel said: “Every day First Base staff and volunteers make an inspiring difference to people who have many different needs. We want to help raise awareness of First Base who offer a range of services to support people who are sleeping rough or insecurely housed in the city, to get off the streets, start realising their aspirations through work, learning and leisure and find a place they can call home.

“It doesn’t matter how little you can do, children can cycle around the oldest cycle track in the country for only £5 and will all receive a medal, have run and raise vital funds for a great service in the Brighton.”

Nicky O’Connell is taking the Living Coast Classic Ride of 58 miles. Riders can choose the 30 mile Devils Dyke Loop.  (Map graphics outlining the routes are available)

Nicky, Jacob and Daniel O’Connell

Nicky, who teaches in Sussex, added: “Cycling is such a great activity for children and adults. The emotional, social and physical development of young children has a direct effect on their overall development and on the adult they will become.  Time spent playing outside  is down 50% in one generation and we know there’s a need to get kids active outdoors and this is a great opportunity to do that whilst helping such a good cause.”

This all day family-friendly event provides options for both less confident and more experienced cyclists. Families with youngsters can ride laps around Preston Park Velodrome between 10am and 12 noon, and again between 2pm and 4pm. Entertainment will take place throughout the day, and designated slots will be run for cycle clubs.

Cyclists can raise funds for BHT orother charities of their choosing.

For more information and to register for one of the challenges, visit the cycle challenge website.

Sign up for the Greater Brighton Cycle Challenge and raise funds for your favourite charity

We have opened registration for our unique cycling fundraiser taking place on July 1st 2018.  This year participants can fundraise for any charity of their choice, and I would encourage you to get a team together for your organisation.

BHT has teamed up with The Living Coast to create the Greater Brighton Cycle Challenge comprising three exciting cycling experiences allowing for all levels of fitness.

BHT’s Around the World Cycle Challenge is a family friendly event taking place the Preston Park Velodrome. This challenge starts at 7am and runs throughout the day, with cyclists aiming to reach the combined target of 69,215 laps (equating to cycling 40,075km around the world) in just 12 hours! Laps can be completed in one session or over a number of sessions throughout the day and there are designated slots for families and club cyclists. Refreshments will be available throughout the day and there is a programme of entertainment planned to add to the fun.

Click here to see a short video of last years event.

The Living Coast rides are more of a physical challenge, with rides of 30 and 58 miles through the world-class environment on our doorstep, recognised by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Region.

The route of the Classic ride (58 miles) is very similar to last year Brighton Mayor’s ride. It is slightly longer due to starting and finishing in the velodrome at Preston Park and a few other minor tweaks, and new for 2018 is the 30 mile ride called the Devil’s Dyke Loop,  for those less confident of managing 58 miles. This heads over to Hangleton to take the Dyke Trail up to Devil’s Dyke before going down to Poynings and Fulking and joining the longer (Classic ride) near Woodmancote.

This exciting cycling event will raise much needed funds for BHT’s First Base Day Centre and for other charities, so please sign up, tell your friends and family and share the links below on social media.

Click here for more information and how to register.

Follow this link to BHT’s Justgiving page for the event.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

According to Margaret Thatcher I am a failure ….

Margaret Thatcher once said: “A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus, can count himself as a failure”. I have to plead guilty as charged. I have never learned to drive, not through any inadequacy (although my long legs makes it awkward to get behind the wheel) but through an absence of need or inclination.

I can’t think that it has hindered me much in my life. I might have gone more into the countryside and it might have come in handy when on holiday, but I haven’t really noticed. Not driving has saved me a small fortune. Instead I walk and use buses, as well as the occasional taxi.

I freely confess I am now over the age of 26, so I think a lot of Margaret Thatcher when on a bus (like the time I caught the bus when I was about to have lunch with the Queen….). I am not alone. According to census data from 2011, over a third of households across the city don’t own a car – failures each and everyone of them!.

Cycling to work across Brighton and Hove has doubled between 2001 and 2011. Just under 5% of the population cycle to work. 14% of residents take the bus to work, and over 20% walk to work. Almost 10% of adults cycle at least once a week.  Even the Mayor of the City, Cllr Pete West, cycles to engagements.

In recent weeks I have become a bit obsessed about cycling. I used to cycle everywhere but stopped over 20 years ago when my daughter was an infant when I narrowly missed being killed by a bus turning from Ditchling Road into Oxford Street in Brighton.

My bike has been rusting in the back yard for too long. Yesterday I got it out, pumped up the tires and the thing practically collapsed under me. I need a bicycle because I have accepted a challenge from colleagues to ride 100km on Sunday 25^th June as part of BHT’s Around the World Cycling Challenge.

In 12 hours we need as many of you as possible to ride round and round the Preston Park Velodrome so that we clock up 40,075km – equivalent to circumnavigating the earth at the Equator.

Why are we doing this? To raise £25,000 for First Base Day Centre. On days like today, with wind and cold, street homeless people need shelter, and First Base provides that and so much more – showers, clean and dry clothes, hot food, medical care, and much more. Staff at First Base also help people to look at why they are on the street and help them to move into accommodation.

There are three things you can do to help:

• Sign up to ride yourself – you don’t have to do great distances, every little helps, as the advert says. It costs £10 to participate, £5 concessions and £5 for children under 16. Register via https://www.bht.org.uk/support-us/around-the-world-cycle-challenge-2017/ (Please make sure you do register)
• Help on the day. Please email my colleague Sara Peskett, and she can let you know how and when you can help.
• Sponsor me. You can do so here or you can send me a cheque made payable to ‘Brighton Housing Trust’ c/o BHT, 144 London Road, Brighton, BN1 4PH

The Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Cllr Pete West, launching the BHT Around the World Cycle Challenge

Fancy a modest challenge to help BHT?

For a while we have been thinking about a mass participation event to raise funds for BHT.  Many of the best ideas have gone – the Brighton Marathon, the Half Marathon, the Midnight Walk, and so on.

We didn’t want people to undertake superhuman feats of endurance, like running up Mount Kilimanjaro with a grand piano strapped to your back or jumping out of an aeroplane wearing nothing but water wings!

We wanted something that people of all abilities could participate in so we came up with the modest idea of cycling around the world …. in just 12 hours.  Hmmm.

Today (Friday 10th February 2017) we have launched BHT’s Around the World Cycle Challenge 2017 which will take place on Sunday 25^th June at Preston Park Velodrome.

We are calling on the community to get on their bikes and cycle as many laps of the track as possible towards a collective target of 40,075km.

The clock will start at 7am. Throughout the day there will be various slots for club cyclists, hand cyclists, children, and adults, enabling everyone to set themselves, their family or friends a personal challenge. There will also be various activities, entertainment and catering stands.

We are hoping that the event will raise £25,000 for BHT.

Please help us by:

• Taking part – Come along for a leisurely Sunday afternoon cycle or a hundred kilometre dash at 7am in the morning. Register via https://www.bht.org.uk/support-us/around-the-world-cycle-challenge-2017/ (Please make sure you register)
• Team Challenge – Why not organise a team and challenge others to a contest to see who can clock the most laps!
• Spreading the word on social media  – Please retweet @BHT_Sussex tweets about the event and invite your friends to the BHT Around the World Cycle Challenge event on Facebook
• Spreading the word amongst your friends – If you have any friends or contacts with businesses who may be interested in sponsoring the event, or would be happy to display an A3 poster, please let my colleague, Sara Peskett, know.
• Volunteering – We will need lots of marshals and stewards across the day! If you’re able to volunteer two hours (or more) of your time, from 7am until 7pm, please contact Sara.

It’s going to be a fantastic day, and we hope it will raise a good amount for BHT.

Photo of the Day: Preston Park, a beautiful, safe and free to use public space

We are very very lucky to live in a city with lots of open spaces and parks. This afternoon I had the great pleasure of walking my dog Daisy around Preston Park. It is a beautiful place, it is safe, and it is free to use. We often forget to think of the people who created it and keep it now, not least employees of the City Council and the volunteers in the Friends of Preston Park.

Enjoy Pride, but don’t let alcohol and drugs ruin your day and that of others

This Saturday sees Brighton Pride. Pride has become one of the main dates in the Brighton calendar and is, without doubt, the event that attracts most visitors to the city.

BHT will, once again, be there with clients and staff in the main procession.

It wasn’t always the celebration that it is today. In the late 1980s I went on the first Pride march, from Hove Town Hall to Preston Park. There were only about 200 of us on the march and it was more of a political demonstrations. I was one of just six Brighton Borough Councillors willing to take part.

The reception on the streets was sometimes hostile, with threats of violence and at least one beer can being thrown at us.

Brighton Pride 1992 – have a look at the crowds in the background!

At Preston Park, there were no stalls or celebration. I have a photograph of Preston Park at the end of an early Pride march. There were just one or two stalls, one selling a publication called Daring Hearts which recorded the early LGBT history of Brighton and Hove.

Following the earliest march, there were some outrageous statements by a fellow Brighton councillor quoted in The Sun. A couple of us were subject to ‘loony leftie’ slurs a few days later, a rather disturbing experience to be on the receiving end of an attack in the most widely read newspaper/comic in the country.

Those days are gone now and Saturday, in spite of insecurities of this age, will once again draw huge crowds.

I know it will not be popular but I do have concerns about what Pride has turned into. The level of alcohol and drug use is a depressing side, and I know that traders in London Road dread of the day, some shutting up shop because of the aggro they experience.

Residents in neighbouring streets, too, do not look forward to the day, seeing their front gardens turned to public toilets and worse.

My message to all of us who will be there to enjoy Pride, think about others, respect their homes and businesses, and don’t let alcohol and drugs turn a celebration into a personal crisis.