Campaigners calling for a fresh consultation into a major traffic project hope that they have support from the people holding the purse strings.
Members of the Valley Gardens Forum, which includes representatives from businesses, residents, the tourism industry and entertainment venues, met today (Tuesday 21 May) to discuss their next steps.
The group hopes that Brighton and Hove City Council will listen to them after the local enterprise partnership (LEP) Coast to Capital imposed conditions involving the forum before a funding agreement for the scheme can be signed off.
The conditions include asking for a written assurance that the forum’s comments are responded to and that engagement will continue with its members.
Coast to Capital has offered £6 million towards the cost of the Valley Gardens phase 3 project, with an extra £1.2 million coming from the council.
Phase 3 involves replacing the Aquarium roundabout with traffic lights by the Palace Pier and making the western end of Madeira Drive one way, with no exit by the pier.
The money cannot be used for any other purpose.
The group has started legal action against Brighton and Hove City Council and is entering mediation in an attempt to reopen the consultation into changing the road layout from Victoria Gardens to the Old Steine.
Forum member Daniel Nathan said: “It is unfortunate it took the threat of legal action to elicit positive engagement from the council.
“The purpose of mediation is not about what went before but to think about what is in front of us.”
He said that there was little disagreement about the broad aspirations of the project but he added: “It wasn’t ideal how this was rushed.
“It’s never too late. Things are not set in stone. We need to look at the decisions taken and if they were taken with adequate information.”
Adrian Bristow, producer at the Spiegeltent, said that he was frustrated at the level of consultation and was concerned about the loss of event space.
He said: “To me it’s perfectly simple. If you’re planning an area, you talk to all the relevant sectors, find out their interests and requirement and come up with their issues and discuss it in a forum before you discuss preferred plans.
“What has gone so very wrong is this transport department has unilaterally come up with their preferred option, which no one I know prefers.”
Green councillor Pete West, whose St Peter’s and North Laine ward includes the first two phases of the project to redesign the road layout, said that he had proposed that the member and stakeholder working group was reinstated.
Forum member David Nathan needs to rewrite a word in this phrase: “to illicit positive engagement from the council”.
Thanks, Christopher. The error was ours, not Daniel Nathan’s. And it’s now corrected.
Small world. Yesterday evening, after an engrossing talk by Ron Geeson on Adjustable Spanners (indeed, he has writte an illustrated history of them), David Nathan somehow recognised me outside, and we discussed amiably the mis-spelling and its correction. Spanners and pedantry is the stuff to give the troops.
Another fine mess caused by the Green Councillors, including Cllr Haw Haw. Lack of consultation. More disruption. More congestion. More pollution.