Andrew Kay: I want to live here

Digging deep into a new project I start to look at what I love about this city

Never one to say no I have just started a new project, again for our rather marvellous TV wing. Having made seven episodes of International Chef Exchange, and 13 of Cook It! I have been asked to take a look at our broadcast property programme. It seems logical to me as I have been a part of Latest Homes since before issue one and I think there are very few issues in our 740 copy catalogue in which my face and words do not appear.
Fifteen years ago when we launched I have to say that friends did rather take the Michael out of me for having to work with estate agents. Back then their reputation was pretty old fashioned and most people saw them as being the enemy. Very soon I discovered that they were humans just like the rest of us and humans who were starting to embrace a new world, new technology and new ideas. Property sales and letting were bound to change and they were going to be the people that would make those changes.
Today I count many of those agents amongst my friends and colleagues –okay, we all still do the shiny suit and too much hair product gags, but they are a nice bunch and much improved I have to say by the increasing number of very professional women involved in their industry – a very good thing.
Latest Homes: I Want to Live Here!, our new show, will be a reflection of the city’s property world and in planning this I have come to see and realise what it is that makes Brighton & Hove the best place to live in the UK.

A few weeks ago I had a short break in London. I lived there for many years, I loved it too, the hustle and the bustle back then excited me. In a way it still does, but my word how uncomfortable is it now?
Okay, some of that discomfort is due to my crumbling bones, yomping across the West End at 59 is not comparable to doing it at 30 or 18 even! I enjoyed the break but there were things that horrified me on my return. I had completely forgotten how filthy the capital is. The clothes I wore were so grubby, a fact that after 25 years working here I had forgotten. And don’t even ask about handkerchiefs – yeuk. No give me Brighton & Hove any day.
I have been somewhat dismayed of late at the petty whining nonsense that seems to crop up on social media sites, you know the stuff; 30 Reasons why I Hate Brighton, that kind of thing. Well I have a message for all those detractors, if you don’t like it leave. You are free to make that choice – and should. Funnily enough I thought that a lot of the complaints were actually the things that I like about the city. I like the buzz of students from abroad, okay they clog the pavements – but they also fill our coffers.
I’ve said it before and I will say it probably until I am blue in the face – Brightonians are all too ready to say nay rather than yay. How I laughed to see the launch of a petition to stop the building of the i360 – months if not years after the project was underway. There are still moaners on the web who seem to think that they can, with a few signatures, stop it. Take a look, it’s there, you’re too late – and given that it’s here then why not get behind it – or do you want to make it a failure. I want it to succeed, whether I like it or not is irrelevant.
Funnily enough whilst researching for the new property show with property man Andy Garth he discovered a planned viewing platform from the 1960s, not unlike the current design except that the circular viewing doughnut was static. It never got built of course.

Andy’s archival shop on Western Road is a treasure trove of local knowledge in many forms and I could spend hours there – which is what I will be doing as it will feature weekly on the new show as will he. Eyes peeled then for the forthcoming launch, a celebration of the city and why we all want to live here.
Watch Latest TV on Freeview Channel 8, Virgin Media Channel 159 or at www.thelatest.tv
Brighton & Hove Stuff, 28 Western Road, Hove BN3 1AF