Brighton & Hove news in brief
Pride grants worth £11k awarded to a host of community groups
Eighteen community groups have been awarded Pride grants by Brighton and Hove City Council. The voluntary groups have been given £11,000 in total with sums ranging from £420 to £1,000 to help them to stage events or activities as part of the Pride weekend. The parade takes place on Saturday 1 September.
Among those to benefit are the Brighton and Hove Federation of Disabled People, Brighton Women’s Centre and the Calabash community group. They have each been awarded £1,000. The grant to Brighton and Hove Federation of Disabled People will go towards the cost of an access tent at the event in Preston Park. It will include sign language interpreters and scooter charging points.
The £1,000 for Brighton Women’s Centre and Calabash will fund performance tents in the park. The Calabash tent will feature live music of black and Asian origin, along with a black history display, and the Women’s Centre tent will showcase live music and art by female artists.
The awards were announced less than a week after Brighton and Hove Pride made a second charitable donation from ticket sales to the Rainbow Fund. Brighton and Hove Pride director Trevor Edwards handed over a cheque for £5,434 to Paul Elgood, chairman of the Rainbow Fund. This takes the amount donated by Pride in 2012 up to £10,546.
Former Brighton night club prepares to reopen as a pub
A former Brighton night club is being refurbished and converted into a pub. New owner Inn Brighton has submitted a planning application to Brighton and Hove City Council to overhaul the old Gloucester night club – more recently the Barfly – in Gloucester Place. Lewis and Co Planning, the specialist planning consultancy based in Portland Road, Hove, is handling the application.
It comes as Inn Brighton is reported to have bought a fourth pub business in London. It has taken a free-of-tie lease on the Bellevue in Battersea High Street, according to the Morning Advertiser, the leading publication for the pub and licensed trade.
Gavin George, the chief executive of Inn Brighton, is quoted by the Morning Advertiser, as saying: “The variety, vibrancy and buzz of the area around Clapham Junction has fascinated me ever since I lived there after graduating.” Earlier this year Mr George was reported as telling M&C Report, a monthly sister title to the Morning Advertiser, that Inn Brighton was looking to build an estate of 25 pubs in London. It already has about 50 pubs, with the vast majority in Brighton and Hove.
Charity takes young patients for a spin on Brighton wheel
Almost 20 young patients at a Brighton hospital were treated to an outing by a local charity and one of its backers. Rockinghorse, the children’s charity, took the youngsters and their families for a free ride on the Brighton Wheel. The youngsters – all patients at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital – had the first ride of the day to mark the Brighton Wheel’s charity day which raised money for Rockinghorse.
The Brighton charity, which supports the Royal Alex and the Trevor Mann Baby Unit, held fundraising collections throughout the day. Staff at Brighton Wheel chose to support Rockinghorse after one of its employees lost his son. Delso Da Silva said: “Our lives changed dramatically when we had our premature twins, Alicia and Alfie, and we were thrust into life on the Trevor Mann Baby Unit for the next nine months.
“Unfortunately after 13 days we lost our beloved son Alfie. Alicia was very ill with life-threatening problems for many weeks but through the help of the Trevor Mann Baby Unit and Rockinghorse, we were finally able to bring our little girl home. We will never be able thank the hospital and charity enough but we hope that any money raised will in turn be able to help other families.”
