Lighting in Pavilion Gardens will start being upgraded this week to help combat anti-social behaviour and sexual assaults.
The city centre park has become a hotspot for attacks on women, with several rapes reported there over the past few years.
The council and the police hope that upgrading the lighting to LED will make the area brighter and safer at night.
As well as the LED upgrades, the lanterns will also be cleaned and repainted.
The work is being paid for by the Safer Streets Fund which focuses on making public spaces safer for women and girls.
The work will be done in three phases, with each phase taking 8 to 12 weeks to complete.
Some of the lanterns have grade II listed status and care will be taken to preserve their historic look and feel.
Temporary lighting will be installed while the work is taking place to ensure the area remains well lit.
Chief Inspector Andy Saville, from Sussex Police, said: “The Royal Pavilion Garden is an iconic landmark in Brighton and Hove and everyone should feel safe to visit and use them at any time of day or night.
“As members of the Community Safety Partnership, we work closely with the council to protect the public and this upgraded street lighting will make a significant difference to safety and enjoyment in the gardens.
“Police have already increased patrols around the Royal Pavilion Gardens and New Road area and worked with the council to instal extra CCTV in New Road to deter and catch those engaging in anti-social or criminal behaviour.
“We will continue to put measures in place, alongside the council and other community partners, to ensure the Royal Pavilion Garden and New Road remain safe places to enjoy.”
The work is being carried out by Brighton and Hove City Council’s community safety and transport teams and Sussex Police.
Good news but can I ask the reporter what is the proven evidence for “several” rapes in the gardens. How many and whe? . Not that even one is bad but think it is highly exaggerated to say “several” rapes.
Hi Kathryn, I take your point, and I confess I don’t have the exact stats, but just the first page of search results on our site shows there have been four rapes or attempted rapes in the gardens since 2019.
https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/?s=pavilion+rape
I followed that link and there seem to be lots of rape stories connected to the Pavilion Gardens, but if I read those articles correctly, it’s the same two or three sexual assaults repeatedly reported on at different times, as the cases progressed, and as assailants were caught and charged, and then again when the same case went to court.
Obviously even one attack is serious cause for concern, but by calling the gardens a crime ‘hotspot’ we create the impression that the Pavilion gardens are themselves to blame for what happened.
My objection to that allegation would be that, as a night owl myself, I often walk home through the gardens in the evening or after midnight and have never felt unsafe there.
We also know that the Pavilion buildings are all covered by CCTV and with night security on duty.
With the Pavilion itself so beautifully lit up, it’s a delight to walk through there in the evenings, and our safety comes from the numbers of others who take that same walk.
Improving the pathway lighting will of course be welcome but most of the anti social behaviour you see in the gardens is people riding hire bikes through there, or people who have had three pints in the pub nipping behind a tree to have a pee, given the lack of public toilets open in the city centre.
Also – who exactly is saying the gardens themselves are a “hot spot for attacks on women” The police? The council? The Pavilion Trusty, Who is this attributed to?
I 100 per cent welcome improved lighting in the gardens, which is long belated and will make people feel safer. But I still dispute that the gardens themselves are a particular” hotspot” (a strong word) for attack and rapes on women.
if we are looking at statistics, the majority of rapes in Brighton since 2019 occured all over the place, elsewhere in Brighton, Hove etc, not in the gardens. Anti social behaviour behaviour is also not just confined to the gardens., It’s endemic in central Brighton including North Street , West St, the Level , Church and New Road which is actually just outside the gardens.
You won’t get any arguments from me about antisocial behaviour being widespread in those locations.
However other than The Level, we’ve never reported on any rapes, attempted rapes or rape allegations in any of those other locations since we started in 2009.
And just because most rapes in Brighton and Hove happen outside Pavilion Gardens, doesn’t stop the gardens being a hotspot. I think at least one rape there a year means it qualifies for that label.
While all rapes and sexual crimes are heinous, it is not true to say there has been ” at least one rape per year” in Pavilion Gardens or “several” rapes.;
November 2022 – repported rape
June 2021 – rape (accused convicted after trial in 2022)
2 reported attempted rapes both win June 2019.
that’s not “a rape per year.” – well only for 2021/22;
If you’re really wanting to claim that no police appeals or local newspaper reports of rapes in the gardens 2020 means it’s safe for women and girls, then fine.
In 2019 though, there were police appeals for two attempted rapes AND a rape. Three separate incidents. https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2019/06/08/woman-raped-in-royal-pavilion-grounds-in-brighton/
How many rapes are enough for you to be happy with the article?
Something definitely need to be done about the boozers/druggies in New Road. Can be very intimidating and not a good welcome for tourists. But I guess BHCC has to maintain the ‘City of Sanctuary’ ethos
As someone who has been involved with the city’s night time economy for many years, my safety concerns are currently about how people get home after working a shift at a local restaurant, pub, or nightclub, and how party goers get home safely after their night out.
While the pub economy is slowly recovering after the Covid years, the bus services that were drastically cut have not been restored. This situation has been made worse by the shortage of bus drivers.
So after midnight, you find there are no buses, or else there is just one bus per hour on a route where once there might be four. You often see so many people having to walk home, when they did not expect to.
In my case, the number1 service back to Hove is now very unreliable, and I often have to walk, having left a pub at a normal time, at about midnight.
My walk home – which takes an hour – might take me through several places that might be deemed to be unsafe, and women in particular may feel even more vulnerable in that situation.
If your friends live in another part of the city, then you often find yourself walking home alone. Getting a Brighton taxi or Uber might seem the obvious solution, except that can mean another £20 on the cost of your night out. The bike rental options now cost you about £10 for an hour’s hire.
Last Saturday, I was able to catch the seafront N700 service, but because it was after midnight there was a £5 surcharge to pay, despite me already having a ticket. When the bus stopped at Churchill square several teenagers tried to get on after their earlier 700 bus had been cancelled, meaning a night bus, the N700, was their only option – but they were left behind when they couldn’t afford the extra £5.
I overheard that they were trying to get back to Shoreham, and they had bought their tickets for the 700 service.
So, in terms of safety, we’re not really catering for the typical situations that many residents and visitors find themselves in. I’m not convinced that better lighting is any solution for crime statistics.