An election poster in a community garden has been defaced four times, resulting in condemnation from candidates.
The White Street Community Garden, in Edward Street, Brighton, is on the border of Queen’s Park and Kemptown wards, where by-elections are taking place on Thursday (2 May).
A poster listing the 11 candidates standing in the two wards was subject to repeated attacks but just one name was damaged, Brighton and Hove Independent candidate Adrian Hart.
Mr Hart said: “It’s such a shame. Amex Area Neighbourhood Action Forum and the garden team had just one intention – to let residents know of an election.
“But our response is the same as the tagging nearby. They come to vandalise again. We show up and repair. We don’t give up.
“Seems like our tenacity in repairing my scratched out name every time paid off – vandal gave up after four attacks.”
The Liberal Democrat candidate for Kemptown ward Robert Brown said that he was disappointed by the repeated attacks.
He said: “Last year I had some of my posters defaced, removed and spoilt – it’s not helpful.
“One may disagree with people and policies, yet defacing items doesn’t solve that – debate does.”
Milla Gauge who is standing for Labour in Queen’s Park and Theresa Mackey, the party’s candidate in Kemptown, said: “It’s sad a community group that have worked to promote democratic participation have had their work stifled.
“We love the rough and tumble of politics but there’s ways to engage that don’t involve vandalism.
“We’d encourage these vandals to debate the issues they seem to be upset about rather than resorting to damaging property.”
The Conservative candidate in Queen’s Park, Sunny Choudhury, said: “I personally think that we may have a difference of opinion but I do not see any logic or sense doing such acts.”
The Kemptown and Peacehaven Conservatives condemned the behaviour “outright”, saying: “We are fortunate enough to live in a thriving democracy, whereby we can vote for our preferred representatives. This is not in keeping with our democratic values.”
Brighton and Hove Green Party was contacted for comment.
Polling stations are due to open at 7am on Thursday and close at 10pm. Photo ID is required for those voting in person.
The count is due to take place on Sunday (5 May) to coincide with the count for the Sussex police and crime commissioner election.
That’s not on. We debate about candidates, and convince why we think some are better than others. We don’t scribble their name out of a poster, that’s honestly just pathetically childish.
No other candidate can say they founded this community garden either. Not all of them even live in the Ward. Where does Conan the fruitarian live? Sounds like it has his Brown pawprints all over this.
Nah Barry – not my thing.
True – I wouldn’t support him as a councillor, and don’t expect him to be one, but would prefer the defeat to be based on an open rejection of who he is and what he stands for. Don’t see the value in this sort of tactic at all.
As Adrian had to do with creating this garden and is I think it’s “executive director” it seems likely that this is a more parochial and local squabble without wider political ramifications.
I work most days on the community garden. The point we make to passers by who are curious as to why Adrian’s name has been defaced four times now is that regardless of whether its someone with personal animosity or a supporter of another party (this happened at last years election info-board by the way), we just keep re-printing a patch to stick on top. Also – Adrian is executive director because in 2019 he campaigned to get the lease from the council and was the only wanting to fill out the CIC forms. Hardly a hands-off one either – had him heaving compost bags down the road in a wheelbarrow yesterday!
Those CIC forms are a pain. And the yearly HMRC ones too. God I love micro-entity exemptions though!
Why is his name first on the list? Surely if it is just information named should be listed in neutral alphabetical order
Alphabetical based on first name here.
Most people would indeed use surname order (which is how they appear on the ballot paper)
Unabashed favouritism on my part! (plus when I designed the info-board I chose first name alphabetical order). The garden group and the ‘amex area’ neighbourhood more widely are made up of all political colours and none but Adrian is popular here. We respect his ‘independent’ model. Party candidates/councillors come and go never to be seen again but Adrian – for 21 years now – is always sticking up for the community here. In May 2019 (when he should have been campaigning) he organised a dinner for locals (elderly, living on their own) and did this because the developer building the ‘Edward Street Quarter’ had organised a similar lunch but bussed in faux locals (plus Mayor Mo Marsh) – no-one around here was invited!
Your sign, your rules Julia!
Yep! Seriously though, very very hard for a community group to support local democracy when half the parties won’t tell you who their candidate is (one party never told us – so we had to wait for the BHCC announcement which was after the poster was printed). Some people then criticised us for being “political” (for wanting the citizens of our area to know there’s a by-election?? You have to laugh otherwise you’d cry).
It’s a really thin line to walk. I tend to keep my space apolitical completely to avoid alienating people, although I certainly have my political leanings when asked directly.
Really, campaigning is down to the candidates themselves, although those who are already engaged in their communities will have their advertising already in hand, as it should be a natural progression of their existing work, methinks.
Goes on all the time. I’ve watched Green candidates removing and destroying flyers of other parties especially Conservative. The left only pretend to be democrats.
Adrian did not ‘have to do’ with securing this garden, he alone secured it. As part of the Amex Area Neighbourhood Action Forum Adrian realised this piece of land was vulnerable. Whilst there was a group of people engaged in the development of the garden it was Adrian who did the difficult and complicated work of setting up the CIC and obtaining the lease from the council. He is the director, but completely open to being joined in that role. He is not the executive director, which seems to imply he is not involved. He is.
Looks like Adrian is on course to win then and some of the more radical locals don’t like it.
i guess that someone locally doesn’t like his trans phobia.
To paraphrase the Cass Report if you have looked at the evidence of a clear breach in children’s healthcare and you conclude that this is, in fact, a fiction concocted by transphobes and should therefore be dismissed then that’s unforgivable. You are putting children at risk by doing that. Shame on you.
A phobia is an unnatural fear of something. Not wanting men who still have their full tackle getting undressed in front of teen girls at the swimming pool is not.
That is oddly specific.
So this is a transphobic comment. You are picking out a thing from your imagination which is bad and applying it to all transgender people. This is bigotry and stereotyping
We know that sexual violence, violent crime generally and indecent exposure is most commonly carried out by cis het men. If rights of all are to be diminished because of the potential actions of some, cis het men wouldn’t be allowed out of the door.
Re the random example of your disturbed imagination, have you been to a swimming pool lately. They are now mostly mixed gender with separate cubicles. Your example is void.