The gossip

The defunct lights at the Royal Pavilion have been replaced. The new lights require just an eighth of the electricity used by the old ones and come in several colours so we can expect a pink Pavilion during Pride.

Has Councillor Pete West, from the ruling Green group, got mixed feelings about the energy-saving bulbs? He said: “Apparently they can do all the colours of the rainbow but I’ve yet to see them do green. They seem to be stuck on red and blue!”

Sticking with party colours, a mobile phone went off at a recent Conservative fundraising dinner during a speech by cabinet minister Eric Pickles. It was Mr Pickles’s own phone. His ringtone? A Kind of Blue.

Mr Pickles emphasised that he didn’t just give lump sums to Tory councils. He pointed out that he had approved cash for projects in Brighton and Hove even though it was a Green-run council. But he is unlikely to approve of the Greens’ proposed budget.

Mr Pickles wants council tax frozen again and council leader Jason Kitcat wants bills to go up 2 per cent. A similar situation last year ended with the Tories and Labour voting together to defeat the Greens and keep bills unchanged.

Last year some public toilets were closed to save money including those at the Norton Road car park. The rationale included other toilets being near by – in Hove Town Hall. But building work at the town hall looks likely to end access to toilets there for the public.

The reason given to concerned staff was that the public could use the car park across the road even though the loos there closed in April. To judge by the smell in the stairwell, not everyone has accepted the closure with good grace.