We reported 10 days ago that The Old Market was up or sale and the trustees who run the Arts Centre were hoping to retain use of the building with the aid of a "mysterious benefactor".

However, Barclays Bank, who now owns the building, has received an offer from Brighton Vineyard, an evangelical religious group. The imposing edifice, which has seen many uses over the years, will now become a place of worship, at least on Sundays.

Brighton Vineyard have said that if their bid is successful they want arts and community activities to continue. Whether this will involve the present Arts Centre trustees remains to be seen. As for the outcome, it could have been a great deal worse. And the "mysterious benefactor" has had a lucky escape.

Source: The Argus

Posted 23 February 2010

On 23rd January we reported the final collapse of the OMT, followed by its resurrection as OMT Mark 2. Barclays Bank who foreclosed their £M loan to OMT and now own the Old Market building gave the new Trust a six months lease. The building is advertised for sale.

Now OMT Mark 2 claim to have found a "white knight" who hopes to buy the building and lease it back to the Arts Centre on advantageous terms, to allow them to continue.

The Trust has again claimed that they are profitable on Arts Centre operations, but we remain to be persuaded of that. The saga goes on!

The appeal against refusal of the notorious "glass penthouse" planning application has been comprehensively rejected. This would seem to rule out any further development of that kind. That at least is good news!

Posted 12 February 2010

The Old Market Trust was finally wound up on January 20th after HMRC took them to court over £240,000 in unpaid taxes. The OMT, which is a charitable trust, has struggled with a heavy debt burden for many years.

However, it was announced that a new company has been formed to manage the Arts Centre. Barclays Bank, to whom the OMT owed over £1M, have taken ownership of the building and the new trust will lease it back. The management team remains in place and the program of events will continue uninterrupted and existing bookings will be honoured.

EBRA heartily welcomes this news, jobs will be saved, but at the expense of suppliers, many of them local, who will be paid a small part of what the OMT owes then, if anything. But most important, the building is now in the care of a major bank, and with the Arts Centre carrying on, our fears about the future of this landmark building are considerably lessened.

However, a doubt remains. The trust has more than once claimed that it makes a small profit on the Arts Centre operations. But EBRA has reviewed the accounts of the OMT for the 5 years up to 30 September 2008, the latest available, and they reveal a troubling situation; the OMT lost over £0.5M in 2008 alone and almost £1M over the 5 years. While some of this will be due to the debt burden, this was a fundamentally unprofitable operation.

Another 15 months has gone by since the last accounts were published, but that profits should have since recovered in the middle of a deep recession is a little hard to believe, but time will tell.

Posted 23 January 2010

Brunswick Square has been nominated as Britain's most picturesque street in the Google Street View Awards.

This is of course to be welcomed, although "picturesque" doesn't quite cut it. Nor does "street" come to that. Nevertheless it is certainly grand, imposing, even awesome, and should be voted for, so follow the link below.

Posted 22 February 2010

Delia Forester and Audrey Simpson narrowly survived an attempt to expel them from the Regency Society for their support of the OMT penthouse development and another at Brighton Marina. However they did not escape a vote of censure.

The chairman of the Society, Roger Hinton, has now resigned, but refused to comment.

This is a sad outcome for the Regency Society. Once a respected voice for conservation it has clearly lost its way, and this has to change.

Posted 12 February 2010

A row has broken out in the Regency Society over their support for the Old Market Penthouses project.

Apparently an attempt is being made to oust the two members of the Society, Delia Forester and Audrey Simpson, who supported the OMT and another development project at Brighton Marina.

Many residents of Brunswick Town now feel that the Society, once highly respected in conservation circles, has totally lost credibility and is in sore need of a makeover.

EBRA of course takes no position on this, but members and residents can find a full account in the Argus.

Posted 12 February 2010

An interview in the Argus in support of Estate Agents Boards has met with derision! Of 17 comments on this, only one supports the Agents. Will they get the message?

Posted 14 January 2010

An objection has been made to the proposal to ban Estate Agents' Boards from the city centre. But Brighton and Hove Estate Agents' Association have objected on the grounds that the area is too large.

There will now be a hearing of the case at Hove Town Hall, and the City Council, who are behind this initiative, have asked us all to give our support.

If you have yet to write to the Secretary of State then do so now!

The address to write to is: Secretary of State, c/o C Kearney at Communities and Local Government, Floor 1/A1 Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU.

The closing date for comments is 8 February so do not delay! It might be a good idea to mention the historic nature and beautiful streets of Brunswick Town!

The City Council have a web page where you can comment directly to them on this subject. It is most important that you all do this if you support the ban. Responses must be in by the end of February.

A public hearing will be held at Hove Town, Norton Road Wednesday 9 March at 10.00am.

EBRA have campaigned long and hard for this and it would be tragic if this opportunity to rid at least some our fine streets of this ugly plague! We need you support, so please act now.

If this initiative fails it will be a very long time before another opportunity arises.

Posted 8 January 2010

Those in the know tell us that 150 years ago, a Mr Joseph Malin opened a fish and chip shop in Old Ford, London and a Mr John Lees opened one in Oldham.

Factoid 1: One in four British grown potatoes ends up in the fryer!
Factoid 2: 90% of us eat chips at least once a month!

It is claimed by some that chips fall in three categories; excellent, good and acceptable. There is no such thing as bad chips. (What about McCains oven chips?- Ed.)

Our Madrid correspondent writes: Chips came to Spain late and fish and chip shops are confined to the British colonies on the Mediterranean coast. Fried fish in batter is however a Spanish invention (as is marmalade), allegedly brought back to Britain after the sack of Cadiz by the Earl of Essex in 1596.

The Spanish Fleet and its treasure was destroyed and the British expelled the inhabitants, burned the town and in the process bankrupted the Spanish Empire, but took a fancy to freidura. We should be grateful for small mercies.

Posted 22 February 2010

Residents have complained about cars being parked illegally in Brunswick Street East by the car mechanics that operate there. It gets worse! Vehicles are actually being worked on while illegally parked!

We have sympathy with the businesses concerned; they have very little space in which to operate. But they ought to play by the rules. Parking restrictions are there for good reasons. EBRA is following the matter up.

Posted 23 January 2010

The severe weather in December resulted in our streets being clogged with packed snow and ice. The City Council then failed to grit or clear large areas which resulted in dangerous conditions for days on end.

EBRA and others applied pressure and as a result Celia Barlow wrote to the leader of the City Council in the strongest terms and at last action was taken. We are delighted to quote excerpts from Celia's email of 22 December:

"I have been contacted by many constituents over the last few days concerning the lack of gritting of roads and more importantly the pavements in Hove and Portslade during the recent spell of inclement weather. Pavements...have been covered in sheet ice for days which were extremely dangerous... I understand that there have been many accidents and injuries.

"Under the previous administration during the snow, the local authority had snowploughs and gritters working flat out. Where were these when the bad weather had been forecast for days previously? Why was the Council not prepared?"

Why not indeed! The Council is there precisely to provide essential services to the city! One thing Celia wrote caught our eye.

"I have also been told by one of my constituents this morning that the road sweepers turned up for work today expecting to get out there and grit only to be told that under the Health & Safety Act it was too dangerous for them to work.

We would have laughed, except that this is just ridiculous! EBRA thanks Celia for her intervention, but extends an icy finger in the direction of the City Council.

Posted 8 January 2010

Celia Barlow has been the Member of Parliament for Hove and Portslade since 2005, and is a strong supporter of EBRA and has worked with the Association on a number of community issues facing the area.

Celia said, "EBRA is an important part of the Brunswick community and has fought its corner for local residents and businesses, achieving positive results.

"When there are contentious issues EBRA is always at the forefront in protecting the unique heritage of the area and have been happy to participate in their events and support their aspirations."

In December, Celia was instrumental in persuading the City Council to clear packed snow and ice that had been allowed to lie on the roads and pavements of Hove for days.

News has reached us that Paul Elgood, one of our two councillors for Brunswick & Adelaide has been selected as Lib-Dem candidate for the Hove parliamentary seat at the next general election.

Paul stood in 2005 and doubled the Lib-Dem vote, but he has a hill to climb, Celia Barlow, the sitting Labour MP polled double the Lib-Dem vote.

EBRA is non-political but we can say this; Paul takes a special interest in East Brunswick and has served the community well as councillor and EBRA thanks him for that.

Posted 7 December 2009. Source The Argus.

Mike Weatherley, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Hove & Portslade and a member of EBRA, was recently asked about community groups.

He commented "EBRA is an example of a successful community programme working for the residents of East Brunswick. Dialogue is important and associations, such as these, give a greater voice to residents' interests; the results EBRA gets are testament to its success."

Mike recently donated a tree to the Community Garden - something he has taken an interest in from its inception, and believes community projects are vital to social cohesion. Further comments about the importance of community focal points can be seen in the web video on his web site.