Andrew Kay: Working together
It was a Sunday, just a few weeks back, and the weather was unpredictable. I set off in drizzle and wind to meet a friend for lunch. The bus was prompt and relatively empty, so I found a seat on my preferred lower deck and settled in for the ride into town. I had my electronic reading device with me, and my phone with its ridiculous catalogue of my favourite music, but I was in a contemplative mood and dismissed those diversions.
As the number 1 bus trundled down Eastern Road I became increasingly aware of the rubbish that was building up. Mounds of black bin-liners were torn open, one has to hope by seagulls, and the contents strewn across pavements and streets. The place was a mess.
By the time we hit the Old Steine things were getting worse and I felt ashamed, the city was full of cyclists doing the London to Brighton run and their first impression of the city was bad, really bad. Brighton should be seen as the jewel in England’s seaside crown, but on that day it was not, it was the soiled undergarment of tourism.
North Street was worse with drifts of garbage being shifted along the pavements by the strong winds we were experiencing and the by the vast numbers of people trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid the detritus. It was vile.
The problem is complex, the arguments on every side have undeniable merits and I have to say that the Green Party inherited this problem and did not create it. That said it is the responsibility of the council to sort it out. By now that might have been done, one has to hope so, but has a lesson been learnt? I hope so again.
That night I returned home feeling saddened by the mess but equally saddened that the parties involved could not get together and sort things out, striving for a common good. Mr R suggested that the problem arises from a near epidemic sense of entitlement. People assume that they have a divine right to be cleaned up after. Have we become like babies who need their nappies to be changed, wallowing in our own filth and waiting for someone to come along and clean up our mess? Or can we do something about it ourselves?
On that Saturday my colleagues from the food festival picked litter on the Old Steine and on Sunday my friend Mr M had joined a party of local businesses in sweeping the beach east of the pier for rubbish. He spent hours in latex gloves picking up an alarming amount of broken glass, mainly beer bottles. It raised the question of how safe our beaches will be, and where is that beer being bought? I suspect from the huge number of ‘convenience’ stores that have been granted easy alcohol licences that make cheap booze available almost 24/7. Surely this is wrong, surely we need tougher restrictions? Can we not dictate that booze be sold only in cans and plastic from these late night outlets? Or do we have to wait for someone to be cut badly on our beaches? It will not take long for that to hit the press and the city will be branded a holiday black spot.
The Brighton and Hove Gay Business forum is already fighting to regain national public confidence in the city as a gay resort and they are doing that by working together, not only in the gay community but with all interested parties. That kind of approach needs to be made city-wide, open debate, collaboration and pooled energy to make this city the jewel of the South Coast once again.
“Working as a community and not fighting as one is surely the way forward. Let’s find common ground and not seek common enemies”
Later that same night I attended the benefit for Brighton Open Air Theatre, BOAT as it will be known. It was my friend Adrian Bunting’s last project before being taken from us by cancer. It was a remarkable evening of comedy and community, the city’s art and theatre lovers working together to create something brilliant for the whole city and to see Adrian’s dream realised. Working as a community and not fighting as one is surely the way forward. Let’s find common ground and not seek common enemies.
