Community campaigners reacted with horror when Hove was renamed “West Brighton” in a leaflet from the council and one of its partners.
The leaflet, produced by Brighton and Hove City Council’s Community Engagement Team and the Trust for Developing Communities, went out to homes in the Goldsmid, Brunswick and Adelaide and Central Hove wards.
Former Hove councillor Christopher Hawtree took to Twitter to accuse the council of pushing through an attempt from 20 years ago to rename the town West Brighton.
He said: “The council is cynically using the cover of the virus again to push its West Brighton fixation, which we saw in 2000 was followed by an attempt to close down the library.”
Mr Hawtree added: “The leaflet says that it is going to everybody in those Hove wards renamed West Brighton. A public relations disaster.”
Save Hove campaigner Valerie Paynter tweeted photographs of the leaflets and said that the contacts listed had council email addresses.
Community development support worker Cal Chester said: “This was an unfortunate mistake which will understandably upset people.
“The newsletter was produced jointly between the Trust for Developing Communities and Brighton and Hove City Council as it was recognised there was an urgent need for people to be aware of local support available to them.
“In producing something like this quickly, there can be oversights.
“We will ensure that the mistake is corrected in any future publications.”
Community engagement manager Sam Warren said that council community workers and voluntary groups split the city into north, east, west and central areas for their work.
She said: “These categorisations of the city are just for our working practices and not in any way a deprecation of any area of the city whether that be Portslade, Hove or Bevendean.
“The newsletter should not have been labelled in this way.”
You’re just a suburb of Brighton! Suburb of Brigghhhton!
Quite right … Should be ‘Brighton West’ not ‘West Brighton’ !!!!
If Hove is going to be Brighton West does that mean Portslade will be renamed Brighton West West and Southwick Brighton West West West? Maybe best to leave them as Hove Portslade and Southwick
On the Hangleton and Portslade edition we were also downgraded to “Brighton West”. I didn’t notice until I checked after seeing this article.
Yes, patcham can be Brighton northeast, whitehawk is east Brighton, moulsecoombe could be north east but not that north Brighton,ovingdean east east Brighton and saltdean east,east east brighton. Clearly oliver and rostrum live in district 9.
I was woken from a surreal dream by the ringing cellphone this morning: BBC Radio Sussex asking me to address the county on this even more surreal matter of the Council again trying do away with the great name of Hove. I think we could avert it but have to be vigilant, and keep the Hove Guard at the ready.
……saveHOVE ; ) !
Can Brighton be rebranded as East Hove please
I thought it was HOVE ACTUALLY.
so an honest and explained mistake that Mr Hawtree jumped on trying to cause conflict were there is none. He should be ashamed and apologise for his actions.
I do think it was inappropriate of Mr Hawtree to react in this way. one would hope that a formally elected official would have the foresight to contact the office for comment first, before immediately assuming its is part of a conspiracy theory and fanning the flames of such.
Er, we have been here before, in 2000, as I said on the radio. When we duly saw an attempt to close down Hove Library. How can the Council again claim that the re-designation is a “mistake”? Residents, I find on many Hove strolls, are alarmed, given the long-running Hove situation. How on earth can anybody blame spellchecker for turning Hove into Brighton West? As it happens, upon the Council I always took care to refer to “Hove and Brighton Council” when speaking and as Chair of the Planning Committee. !
Christopher – can you ever make a post without mentioning that flipping library?
almost as offensive as when people call portslade west hove – not very nice areas trying to use the Hove name – not good
They don’t blame spellchecker, they explain how an honest mistake was made and not a re-designation. they are working hard in unprecedented times. whereas you Mr Hawtree immediately assume it is linked to something that didn’t happen 20 years ago, and try to blow it up into a much larger issue than it actually is. Be the better person; let it go, accept you overreacted to an honest mistake and apologise.
No, we were put through such misery by cllr Robins’s attempt to close the Library that we have to be forever on the alert in defence of Hove. This Brighton West fiasco has been arousing so much comment on the sidewalks about a cherished place. The “explanation” is fanciful: how can anybody sit down and type – shudder – Brighton West?
The Brightoncentric focus of officers & many (mainly Labour) politicians since unification on has required constant vigilance. Brighton seediness is offset by & elevated by association with highly regarded Hove
“Sidewalk” don’t you mean “pavement”? This is clearly part of your attempt to push through American English, in place of English!! 🙂
You’ll probably find in many administrative organisations that the whole of Brighton & Hove (and Portslade!) is treated as Brighton. This may be split into West, Central, and East rather than along the lines of historical boundaries that are only of interest to historians.
A bit like “Shoreham Airport” being known as “Brighton City Airport” when the “city” is “Brighton & Hove”. Even “Brighton & Hove Albion” now regularly appears on news item as “Brighton”.
This newsletter is all about support for the residents with details of links within a particular area, and focusing on dealing with Covid-19, which I recall, doesn’t take notice of lines on the ground.
And I helped out delivering these newsletters in Portslade and I never noticed the same problem with regard to Hangleton & Knoll, North Portslade and South Portslade.
Perhaps some people stuck in the past have nothing better to do than nitpick.
It is called, bizarrely, Shoreham (Brighton City) Airport – though airstrip would be a more apt description. A frightful parade of sheds. Despite the fanciful name, it cannot take bigger aircraft.
People in Hangleton surely know that name. They do not gsin anything by its being relabelled West Brighton. Hove is always on the, er, alert after the Library horrors. As Robert Nemeth and Geoffrey Vowden said during a television discussion, Brighton gets everything, Hove nothing – or just a mini-roundabout if it’s lucky.