The organisers of Brighton and Hove Pride have welcomed the news that a bin strike – timed to coincide with the annual parade and party – has been suspended.
The GMB union said this morning (Thursday 25 July) that it had reached an agreement with Brighton and Hove City Council and that members supported the suspension of the strike.
The strike had been due to start on Monday (29 July) and run until Tuesday 6 August, coinciding with the Pride parade on Saturday 3 August.
Pride said: “We are very happy to hear that the proposed GMB union strike that was planned to coincide with Brighton and Hove Pride has been called off.
“While we always independently manage, facilitate and cleanse all of our official event sites and their immediate surrounding areas, the contingency plans we had in place mean that Pride has booked and paid for additional, enhanced cleaning provision at our own expense and these will remain in operation over the weekend.
“This means there will be increased cleansing at the official Pride LGBTQ+ Community Parade, our main fundraising events, Pride in the Park and LoveBN1Fest at Preston Park, Pride Pleasure Gardens on the Old Steine and the Pride Village Party in Kemp Town.
“We provide additional bins, litter pickers, road sweeping machines and jet washing for these sites.
“Pride do not run any events on the beach and, with numerous unaffiliated events run by independent businesses across the city, we would like to appeal to all businesses to engage in our City Angels campaign.”
This includes asking businesses to “commit to keeping the front of your business area clean, tidy and litter free over Pride weekend and encourage customers and staff to dispose of their litter responsibly”.
Pride added: “Pride is also sponsoring a beach clean, working with Oceans 8 Brighton on the Big Pride Beach Clean on Sunday 4 August.
“We have the utmost respect and are grateful for the work Cityclean do over the Pride period – and what is already a busy summer weekend.
“We look forward to welcoming GMB members and workers from Cityclean at our Pride LGBTQ+ Community Parade.”
