Adur council leader calls Brighton and Hove ‘a dump’
The leader of Adur Council has sparked anger for calling Brighton and Hove “a dump”.
Councillor Neil Parkin, who works in Brighton and Hove as a taxi driver, made the comments in response to a Labour colleague’s suggestion that Worthing town centre was “in dire straits”.
Calling the city “the socialist republic of Brighton and Hove”, he appeared to suggest that the Labour council had run it into the ground.
He told the Adur and Worthing Councils joint scrutiny committee on Tuesday night: “I’m staggered that the leader of the opposition in Worthing quite blatantly having a pop at Worthing for, in her words, not looking particularly nice.
“She obviously hasn’t been to the socialist republic of Brighton and Hove and seen what a dump that is
“Can I just say that as someone who travels to both places very regularly, Worthing is quite lovely most of the time. Winter it’s a bit grey but the rest of the time it’s quite lovely.
“Brighton is a dump nearly all year, in fact all year.”
He was responding to Councillor Beccy Cooper, the Labour group leader for Worthing Council, who had earlier asked why more hadn’t been done to improve the town centre years ago.
She said: “If we had done this before we wouldn’t be in quite dire straits now . . . It does feel like we’re suddenly going to do this because of coronavirus, and I feel we should have done this quite a long time before.”
Leader of Brighton and Hove Council, Councillor Nancy Platts called for an apology to the people of Brighton and Hove from Councillor Parkin.
She said: “I have been working very constructively with other council leaders across the region to lead on the economic recovery for all of us – recognising that people work and live in different towns and cities within the Greater Brighton area.
“Councillor Parkin’s comments are not only damaging to Brighton and Hove as the major city in the region which delivers hundreds of thousands of jobs and millions of pounds to the local economy; but also to the whole region.
“I’m proud of our city and what we are doing to recover from the Covid pandemic and would not dream of making derogatory comments about a neighbouring area – especially at such a sensitive time.
“I hope that Councillor Parkin will now apologise to the people of Brighton and Hove and withdraw his unfortunate comments.”
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If cllr Parkin thinks that Hove and Brighton are dumps, what word is left for Newhaven, which for decades has been promised improvements which are never forthcoming?
Comparing Brighton to Newhaven isn’t the point, Christopher.
Nancy Platts is absolutely correct. As a Worthing resident, I can say it looks tired and unloved. Brighton, on the other hand, maintains its year-round vibrancy. Being a shouty Tory cabbie doesn’t really enhance Cllr Parkin’s standing.
Normality returns and our councillors are having totally pointless discussions. Well done.
The councillor is right Brighton is a dump it’s also a building site this is what happens when the Greens run your town. This is one of the reasons I moved out of the town.
They don’t. It’s Labour.
I live in Brighton and totally agree, Brighton is an absolute dump. The whole city stinks of weed, urine and alcohol, homeless people in every city centre Street usually off their heads and kicking chunks out of one another, rubbish everywhere, graffiti all over the shops. It’s not a nice place in the slightest and it’s only getting worse.
I live right in Brighton city centre, and don’t see/smell/hear the vast majority of what you describe, sure there are a few homeless sitting around begging, and yes enough graffiti, but it’s not much different to 25 years ago when I was still living in the city centre!
The young people are not being brought up with manners and decency, I’m young myself and dislike most of them!
I have lived in Brighton all my life and over the years l have watched it get gradually get worse year on year l am ashamed to admit l live here, it doesn’t matter who runs the council, l remember sitting upstairs on the bus with my dad and from St. Peter’s church all the way down to the seafront the flowers and lawns were kept immaculate l had the misfortune to go down to London Rd last week l couldn’t believe it buildings covered with graffiti everywhere how has that been allowed to get like that Brighton has lost its way it has become a S Hole where is all our money going?