The first year of the Brighton Christmas Festival upset local residents and a community association and left show-piece historic gardens looking like a muddy quagmire, the Conservatives said today.
A leading Conservative councillor said that the event should be relocated to Madeira Drive from the Old Steine Gardens if it is held again at the end of this year.
The festival finished on Friday 31 December, having run seven days a week from Friday 26 November, apart from Christmas Day.
It extended north from the Old Steine Gardens to St Peter’s Church, encompassing the whole of the Valley Gardens area.
It was the first year that the festival had run, after being granted permission by Brighton and Hove City Council.
But the Tories said: “The five-week event caused considerable upset to residents, with the continuous noise of the funfair attractions leaving locals unable to sleep in their homes and at the end of their tether with the council.
“Christmas Day provided the only respite day for these residents from the noise.
“With the festival having now packed up for the season, public spaces including Old Steine Gardens have been left in a terrible state, with lawns having been churned into mud.”
Conservative councillor Dee Simson, who speaks on tourism for her party, said that the council should move the festival to a better location for future years.
Councillor Simson said: “The council needs to listen to local residents in the area who have had five torrid weeks of thumping music disrupting their sleep.
“Concerns about the noise raised by the local Old Steine Community Association during the festival were not heeded by the council, leaving residents frustrated.
“Now, to make matters work, the historic gardens that run through the Valley Gardens precinct have been left in a dreadful state and will take a massive amount of repair work if they are to recover for the summer.
“It is such a shame to see these historic parks in an even worse state than they were during the summer after other events and the council has a lot to answer for.
“The city already has a suitable ‘ready-made’ space for a Christmas festival along Madeira Drive and this would be a much better location to hold it in future years.
“This ideal space would connect with the Palace Pier to create a much better environment for the Christmas festivities.
“The Conservatives will be raising this matter at this week’s meeting of the Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee on Thursday 13 January and will be asking the council to review the location for 2022 and beyond.”
One Brighton business executive said that the council, which brokered a loan to the i360, had insisted that the Brighton Wheel, near the pier, should be taken down before the i360 opened.
He said that this was presumably so that the i360 would not face competition from a similar rival attraction.
Yet, he said, the council had permitted in effect a fairground at the festival which in all likelihood drew business away from the pier rather than working with it and including a big wheel.
David Hill, chief executive of E3 Events which organised the festival, said: “We are happy to work with the council – and indeed the wider community – to make the Brighton Christmas Festival 2022 the huge success I am sure it will be.
“We faced a series of challenges in 2021, which we managed to overcome, but I have already said we are happy to learn lessons, having listened to various groups and individuals.
“We are happy to engage in positive conversations regarding the best location for this year.”
The Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Thursday.
The Tory councillors will be banning football being played in parks next – that also makes the grass muddy after all. Nimbyism at its worst, which bandwagon will they jump onto next?
If this does get moved to Maderia Drive I guarantee that the Conservatives will be the first to complain that it’s closed to traffic for the event. They have to be in a constant state of faux-outrage about something.
Personally Mary i think your comments aptly apply to Labour and the Greens who run the shambles Known as Brighton and Hove City {?} Council. The tories have made a legitimate comment regarding the continuing miss-use of these supposedly restored gardens. One wonders what was the point of spending all that money just to mess it all up again. Talking about Madeira Drive when are they going to start restoring the terrace? Once again it has been the tories keen to get this fast forwarded. Labour and Greens just waste our money.
So skipping politics. The obvious site is around The Pier and on The Pier…. E3, BHCC and Pier should work together to do something for the benefit of all and PierFest was a huge success, Ditch the politics and the competition and work together!
Madeira Drive can only be closed on 28 days of the year for events according to law.
So if the Tories want this fair moved there it means no other events could use the drive such as the marathon and the London to Brighton bike ride and vintage car runs
Is that what they really want?