I visited former councillor Mary Mears the other day.
Mary was elected as a Conservative councillor in 1993, serving as leader of Brighton and Hove City Council from 2008 to 2011. She represented Rottingdean, lived in Woodingdean and knew east Brighton like the back of her hand.
Along with other charismatic local leaders, such as the late Faith Matyszak, Mary considered Whitehawk her turf. She was passionate about housing and chaired the local Royal British Legion.
Mary was poised to become mayor of Brighton and Hove when, tragically, she suffered a stroke, complicated by covid.
This independent, hard-working woman is now physically disabled and dependent upon others. Since her discharge from hospital, she has had no choice but to live in a local nursing home.
The nursing home is well run and the staff are kind. Yet the freedoms that Mary used to take for granted are lost to her. This highly intelligent politician has little chance to discuss current affairs or influence the world about her. The staff are busy and many of her fellow residents have dementia.
Her pleasant room has become a prison. There’s a lovely view but she can’t see out of it – a common design fault which planners could easily address but do not.
Mary is visited by friends and family, and has a wheelchair. It would be pleasant to accompany her to a nearby café or park, except there are none. There is nowhere for anyone to go, unless they have access to suitable transport – and the strength to bear the journey.
Unfortunately, Mary’s nursing home, like so many in the city, is situated in a place unsuitable for older people and others with disabilities. It’s at the top of a hill, with no parks, shops, cafés or community centres in easy walking distance. The road is so steep that last time I visited I nearly fell.
It’s deeply shocking to me that Mary, so vibrant and well known in the community, should be stripped of power or what is now called “agency”.
And yet, as someone who cared for many years for my late mother, I know this is a problem that has blighted the lives and often the final days of many thousands of local people.
I have written before about the tendency of the local council to favour student accommodation over the needs of frail elderly people and others with chronic ill health, whose residential services are often pushed to the outskirts of the city.
Time and again, when sites suitable for supported housing or care facilities have become available in accessible sites, close to facilities, they have been earmarked for others, often students, most of them young and able bodied.
Years ago, when the large Co-op department store in London Road was closed and the site became available, I wrote that it would be ideal for frail or disabled people.
The site was flat, near the Open Market and shops, chemists, cafés and bus routes, as well as The Level and community groups. That prime site went for student housing.
Some years later, even more student housing has been built in London Road at the old Boots and Somerfield site.
So it is able-bodied young people, not the elderly, who sunbathe on The Level and stumble happily into the Co-op Food Hall on the ground floor. It is they who benefit from the Aldi across the road, the Sainsbury’s up the street, local cafés and two pharmacies.
Once again, the disabled, sick and elderly have been forced to the margins by blameless students who almost certainly would be prepared and able to live further afield and walk greater distances. The pattern is repeated across the city.
Mary is an east Brighton woman but if there’s another place she knows well, it’s London Road’s Open Market. Mary’s family ran a greengrocer’s there and even after she was elected, she worked on the stall. It is how I first met her.
Stall holders there remember Mary and speak about her. When I shop there, as I often do, I think how nice it would be, if Mary lived close by, for her to visit the Market for a cup of tea. Or have an ice cream on The Level or a light lunch at Nova.
It reminds me of the days when my mother was in a nursing home and I longed to take her out for a simple cup of tea.
It’s a cruel injustice to force someone out of familiar places because they are ill. Sometimes it can’t be avoided but in our supposedly inclusive city it has become common practice.
We condemn cities which reject homeless people yet we routinely banish our disabled elders and turn a blind eye to their suffering.
As a community we should be ashamed.
Jean Calder is a campaigner and journalist. For more of her work, click here.
I am very sad to say that there are painful truths in this piece. The city picks and chooses inclusion and is ready to leave others behind if they don’t meet X agenda. It’s not how a city should be run and trade offs should be thoroughly explored.
I may see if Mary wants a visitor, as she was always very kind to me even though we didn’t know each other that well.
Conservatives: *Destroy support systems across society*
Also conservatives: “where are the support systems?”
This is so sad and very true, this outbreak of student accommodation in Brighton will cause problems eventually, at the cost of senior care.
I’m 76 and moved from Brighton to Eastbourne 3 years ago. On a recent visit back to Brighton I was struck at how “youthful” the town is. In the North Laine area I felt I was the ònly person over 40! This rather backs up your article. I prefer Eastbourne! I remember Mary Mears when she worked in the Open Market.
I couldn’t agree more! Very well said.
Change is the future – and every politician should know a thing or two about change! A lively city needs to adapt and change with its personality. Brighton is not a city for the frail ones. That’s a truth. It doesn’t need to be. There are too many of those already. Let’s not make all cities the same. Lewes, Rottingdean, Eastbourne and many others are more adapted for frail older people. It’s not because one knows the Open Market well that they should end their life near the Open Market. For a happy life we should learn to adapt and move on. Some towns are more appropriate and suitable for certain people. Cities have a personality, let’s not take it away. We all age and get older and more frails, but let’s not do that to our cities. Let’s not take them down with us. Let’s protect them. In life there is a time and place for everything, let’s just accept it, move on and experience different things. Brighton is very inclusive but it doesn’t mean it should include absolutely everyone. That’s just not possible. Brighton is not suitable for everyone and everyone is not suited for Brighton.
What a disgusting comment.
If someone dares to grow they should be able to live where they like / can afford.
Communities benefit from elders and the wisdom of age.
So grandparents should be separated from their families and left to rot?
Inclusivity isn’t something you can pick and chose from.
In 2023 I can’t believe we are still facing agist and ableist comments.
What a poor, shallow and empty society you dream of. If you are lucky enough to grow old hope you remember your ignorance in your loneliness.
I hope your remarks truly comeback and haunt you when your old and decrepit, with no one to even care for you.
Your just plain dumb stupid and about as callous as can be, good luck when your unable to call for help.
An interesting concept, a “young town” should ship it’s elderly elsewhere because it’s not for them.
Brighton should be an inclusive City, everyone should be able to live here whoever they are.
I think the exact opposite, Brighton should be suitable for everyone.
My Mum with dementia and limited mobility has just as much right to enjoy the city as the young family next door.
What a load of rubbish! A city should be for everyone, whether old or young, whether fit or frail. We keep being told how Brighton and Hove is inclusive, whereas it is nothing of the kind. Everything, everything is aimed towards young people, especially students. Yet many of these older people, who you say should be moved to other towns, have paid their taxes for most of their lives, and have just been abandoned by successive councils. In the case of Mary, this is someone who has spent a great deal of time in trying to make it a place for you and others like you to enjoy being in. So much for it being a City of Sanctuary. Well, yes, if you are a drunk or druggie, or a refugee. For others it has become a city of Hell, allowed to become a dump.
As for culture, it doesn’t compare with Eastbourne, which really does cater for all ages and all types, and it is clean.
I don’t understand this articles main hope. To get the council to reject all planning applications except for those of nursing homes? I’d like to see evidence in which the council chose a student developer for example over an elderly persons musing home at planning stage
In short, I doubt they have. They simply accept or reject the plans of those who already own the site.
Could the council build their own? Maybe. But that’s a national issue requiring central funding delegation. It isn’t an “evil council” as this article implies
As much as I find it difficult to agree with anything that a Conservative says it is probably worth considering how bereft of inclusivity our town is becoming as it is flooded with more and more students. It’s not just the older generation (much despised by several commentators on here for some reason I notice) who suffer from all the available in-town Brownfield sites being given over to these accommodation blocks.
These are spaces that could have been used to build assessable/affordable housing for the low paid/disabled or even (gasp, horror – pensioners daring to live in Brighton) retirement flats allowing older people to downsize whilst staying in touch with their families who have lived in Brighton for generations. Other towns seem to manage this – why not Never Normal Brighton?
But it isn’t flooded with “more and more” students. The numbers are flat and have been for a decade. The issue is the developers see more profit in student accommodation (as there is a shortfall) than say nursing homes. That’s the issue which is difficult to find a solution to
Tom,
Quote from recent on-line article on why students should come to Brighton:
Brighton has the largest student ratio of all UK student cities, with students making up 11.7% of the total population. Brighton is in the top 15 UK best student cities and 81st in the world (the QS Best Student Cities 2023 rankings) .
I think that flooding is an appropriate term especially as, despite the grandiose claim to be a city, Brighton is, in reality, just a medium sized town.
BRR, I feel like “becoming” implies a different state to the norm, when in fact we’ve been in this situation for fifteen or twenty years.
Who is the Conservative with whom you find it difficult to agree ?
Fantastic article Jean, so true the contents and nice to know that she gets visits from you and your partner Andy as well.
From the Wells,s
This is a great article ,so true.The developers need to get a balance between the community’s .carmel
Mary Mears is a TORY.
She did nothing to challenge her Party over council cuts.
Are we talking here about private nursing homes or those provided by the taxpayer?
Private ones are there to make a profit from the walealth of those who were unfortunate enough to have wealth which the government takes (forces home sales and savings to be used)
Pop them in town centres and that will cost more – a horrible reality.