A director of fire-hit Chandlers Building Supplies said that his business would back a family event at Hove Lagoon to thank all those who gave help during and after the blaze.
Chandlers’ timber trading director Trevor Mudd also told the Friends of Hove Lagoon that the company would contribute towards planting around the seafront attraction.
City Parks – part of Brighton and Hove City Council – is also supporting the planting scheme.
At the Friends’ annual general meeting (AGM), held at the Big Beach Café last night (Wednesday 21 March), Mr Mudd prompted sympathetic laughter from the 40 people present.
He said: “As everyone now knows, Chandlers has got premises next to the Lagoon.
“We’re a family business with roots in East Sussex and we’ve owned the site at Basin Road North for just over three years.”
He praised the help and co-operation given by so many people when fire destroyed one of Chandlers’ warehouses at the Hove end of Shoreham Harbour last Thursday (15 March).
He cited the fire and police services, council building control officers, demolition contractors, Environment Agency officials and Shoreham Port staff.
Their focus on preventing any risk to life, controlling the fire and protecting the environment had helped free his staff to work hard to reopen the business so quickly – on Monday (19 March).
Mr Mudd said that the local community – local businesses and local people – had been very supportive.
And he said: “We’d like to thank the local community and we think the best way is by supporting the planting and LagoonFest.”
LagoonFest is a family-focused fun day scheduled for Saturday 8 September. It is expected to include music, stalls, a boat race, dog show and tombola.
Mr Mudd said that Councillor Robert Nemeth, who was re-elected as the Friends’ chair last night, had been talking to Chandlers about supporting the group before the fire last week.
He said: “I suspect our support might be a bit greater now than it would have been before.”
Mr Mudd added that the Hove site was also the timber distribution centre for all the company’s branches across the company.
“All our construction timber and roofing batons come in through the port,” he said.
Referring to those who run the port, he added: “In the three years we’ve been here, you couldn’t meet a nicer bunch.”
The Friends AGM heard about progress at the Lagoon over the past year, including clean ups.
More than 250 tons of silt, rubbish and algae were cleared from the two pools, with Lagoon Watersports and Surfers Against Sewage taking some of the credit.
Perhaps the most bizarre aspect was that helpers found more than a hundred shoes in the bigger of the two pools.
Thanks for your interest in the cleaning of Hove Lagoon. A huge amount of credit for cleaning of the Lagoon’s needs to go to Sean and his team from Sweeptech who did an amazing job. They genuinely took pride in getting the lagoon clean. The clean Lagoon would not have been possible without Sweeptech showing such commitment. Thanks Guys
I met some of the guys from sweeptech on the Friday after the fire at Chandlers in the evening to sign some paperwork and I found them to be a great bunch ( even gave me a lft home as my car was still to close to the burning building) I would recommend them highly.
Thanks for a very good article and for the plugs Frank.
Friends of Hove Lagoon