A decision on whether to approve new fencing around Pavilion Gardens has been put off.
Council leader Bella Sankey said the delay was so clearer designs showing how 24 access can be maintained could be drawn up to remove “uncertainty” for the planning committee.
The plans were due to be considered by Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee this afternoon, but were taken off the agenda at the eleventh hour.
Community and heritage groups have raised concerns the fencing could be used to close off the gardens for private events or at night in the future.
The application was made by Brighton and Hove Museums, which together with the council has secured a £4.3 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for works to the gardens.
These also include re-landscaping and remodelling the toilet block so it opens out onto the gardens and includes a cafe kiosk.
Council Leader Bella Sankey said: “The Royal Pavilion Garden is an area of major historical, cultural and economic significance. It’s also a much-loved and well-used space in the heart of the city centre which residents and visitors want to continue to enjoy.
“It’s really important that we get the balance right and the current plans are not clear enough about how we’ll ensure ongoing 24 hour access to the garden for the public.
“We’ll work with our partners at Brighton and Hove Museums to make sure more detailed designs are put together so that all partners are in agreement around 24 hour garden access and there’s no uncertainty for the Planning Committee around what that looks like.”
The project is part of a wider plan developed by the council to enhance the Royal Pavilion Estate as a key cultural destination. Phase One of this plan, the refurbishment of the Grade I listed Corn Exchange and Grade II listed Studio Theatre was completed in 2023. The garden restoration is Phase Two of these plans.
I’m marking this down as a win.
And thanks to Council Leader, Bella Sankey, sticking to her word on this one.
When the Pavilion and gardens were handed over to a Trust to run, the intention was never to turn a public space into a private one.
I think so. When the Council pause to think about something in further detail, that’s a good sign that they are listening and considering. I do agree with you that the space should remain a public one, and the reasons for monitoring it really fall to the remit of our police force having a visual presence.
A high fence with 24 hour access and only one or two entry and exit points is much much worse for safety than the low/ no fencing there is now. At present there are multiple ways to escape/ exit.
My other pet safety peeve in Brighton is the fact that over the pandemic the Council have allowed taxis to have tinted windows. It’s really poor for women’s safety – if someone is in trouble in a cab they can no longer be seen signalling for help to passers by. Eventually this is going to lead to an incident.
This is not correct. Bella Sankey is going against all professional expert advice in promising this, including the head of police (and she knows this). It’s an abuse of power to refuse to allow the planning process to continue unhindered. People are being murdered and raped in this park, and promising 24 hour access will make it impossible to keep people safe. This is a golden opportunity to make this area safer for the public, it is a duty of care, and the council should take it. Bella Sankey should not be using her position to go against all evidence and expertise. It’s outrageous, and the people of Brighton should apply pressure for the plans to go ahead with new safety measures in place.
Claire, your words are quite emotive and I don’t recognise the space that you are describing.
Has there actually been a murder in the gardens? And, if there was, are the gardens then somehow to blame for that?
If closing down a public space is deemed necessary for public safety then, by the same argument, we should close down the whole of the city centre at night.
If you went to the Pavilion gardens yesterday evening you would have seen groups of friends sitting on the lawns and chatting. You would have seen photographers taking pictures of the Pavilion, all lit up at night. Tourists were wandering through the gardens arm in arm, enjoying the well-lit space. The Pavilion has 24 hr security and there is CCTV covering most areas.
All this alarmist stuff about the Pavilion and Gardens being an unsafe space just doesn’t ring true when you go there to see for yourself.
For sure, people will make their own judgement about where they feel safe when walking home, but fencing off key sections of the city centre won’t change that.
The police statistics do not show the gardens to be an area of high crime.
When English Heritage described the gardens as being ‘at risk’ they were very specific about that being because the grounds are a victim of their own popularity, and with the result being there is confusing signage and mis-matching bins.
Billy, you always comment similar things about the garden being great in the evenings – what time are you ‘usually’ there?
I realise that comes across a bit sinister… I only ask because there’s a big difference between 9pm and 3am.
A quick search shows a man murdered in 2018. Many more articles come up for instances of rape – the most recent being last Saturday.
Well I do go there in the daytime but more in the evenings.
As a photographer I’m often there taking photographs in last light, so at this time of year that’s after 9pm.
And then I also walk home through there after pub closing time, usually at the weekend. Because of Brighton’s night time economy, there are still lots of people about after 1am.
I think it’s key to remember that lots of Brighton people live in cramped and shared accommodation and with no outdoor space, so it’s not suspicious to find groups of friends sat chatting in a park in the evening or even late at night.
Who have been murdered? Where is your evidence?
I don’t believe we can post links in response on here – but if you search ‘Brighton Pavilion Gardens murder’ you will see multiple news articles reporting on the Murder of Andrew in 2018.
She’s not gone against any advice. She’s not stopped the application.
She’s asked for a delay to allow council officers and the trust to improve the plans and ease some of the concerns people have.
It wouldn’t be private. The funding will now be withdrawn. Another Labour failure.
Don’t be silly, that’s not how National Lottery Funding works; even when they set deadlines for spending grants, as long as you explain the reason for a delay, they are more than happy with that. They just want to ensure a certain level of progression towards the grant objective.
I want to share this. I attended an event at the Concert Hall on the evening of the 7th of May with one other person. We were out at about 9.20pm and decided to take the short walk through The Pavilion Gardens to the other side so we could catch a bus home. Next time we will take the long way round!
As we entered , three police offers were rushing towards us with , one using a walkie talkie said something about guys running around around with knives in the gardens. We felt vulnerable and unsafe being so close to that! On the other side of the gardens were more police talking to a group of people. When we got through the gardens there was a huge police presence on the road side and we decided to get a taxi home as we really just felt anxious and wanted to get home fast after such a positive music event!!
It’s all well and good having public parks and gardens to enjoy but I wonder if anything has been done to improve the safety to the public in The Pavilion Gardens since it is open 24 hours a day! I began looking at news stories of rape, other violent attacks and stabbings in the Pavillion gardens over the years and recenly. More so after dark! I’ll never again walk through those gardens in the dark! Maybe not even in the day!
“24 hour garden access” while hidden under darkness in my view is inviting trouble. Ask the victims !
Laura, yes I agree with you on the last bit. Also, in my opinion, having the fencing and also 24 hour access may increase risk. If someone’s being attacked in the grounds, fencing may make the victim’s escape more difficult.
Limited gates will make it easier for a mugger to block the exit. And fences harder for other people to see what is going on or assist. This is about entrance fees, not safety
Competely agree. This is a case of public safety overriding the wish for ultimate ‘freedom’. Many public parks close overnight for this reason, it’s nothing new. Common sense and protection must prevail here. If it doesn’t, I would challenge Bella Sankey and others in support of 24 hour access to face the victims of these serious crimes, and espouse that their right to ‘freedom’ trumps their right to safety. Insanity.
The RPMT may have shot themselves in the foot with this. Everyone wants the Pavilion gardens to be improved and renovated but not at the loss of what has been a historic free 24/7 resource for the people of Brighton since the 19th century and imprisoned and obscured from view by high railings and gate closures.
The proposed railings look quite nice and are based off of a historic reference so really it’s very fitting for the context… I’m wondering if you’ve ever seen an iron railing before? They have gaps in between each bar which you can see through! Pretty cool
If closing it at night means there’s even a slightest reduction in instances of rape, drugs, assault, use as an open air toilet (all for which this is a noted hotspot) then I’m all for it. I think that’s something we’ll be able to cope with even if in the past it was done differently – but maybe that’s because I’m a decent person who cares for the safety of others – and also don’t normally hang around in parks at 3am.
I just dont know, as a local resident living opposite I often use the gardens as a cut through home, saving me time, I would say the lighting is always an issue at night time going through, having exits is good as if you do feel unsafe going out of one for whatever reason you can change. The biggest issues is often drug dealing so again better night and duel working with police is advisable. In general I would say ive seen a lot of stalking, men stalking women and other men, I can clearly see it happening, have reported. Its scary as this is a quiet place often at night. Making it even more restrictive, harder to get out, I worry about some of the concerns around this increasing risk to women and sometimes male safety around sexual crimes etc.
Having activity is not the issue its having the right type of activity, including visible police possibly specific tourist and traveller safety teams, state of the art CCTV around our cultural and city centre areas. Night cops prove we need better.
As I say youth will always jump fences, but if someone got trapped the higher the fence the longer it takes to climb to get out, if in trouble.. surely lighting, more cultural events in evenings bringing in a community open spirit with local vigilance and investment should work and help fund.
All it needs is for the occasional beat police presence. Anyone remember those ? For the younger among us they were people in blue uniforms that used to walk about keeping an eye on things and providing a disincentive to those who may be tempted to do bad things.
Just to clarify some of the comments and questions in this thread:
1) The Lottery funding has not been lost for the fencing, and this new delay has simply been that planning want evidence that the fencing will not be used to deny public access. This is not council money but extra funding, and so we should be pleased about it, but the devil is in the detail…
2) The proposed fencing is, from the drawings, made of cast iron and of long term quality, but there have been questions over why it needs to be over 7ft high – which is higher than the traditional fencing around Sussex Square, for example. The Pavilion and grounds have never been fenced off before.
3) The suspicion is that the RPMT wants to close off the grounds so as to run pay-per-view events, and that’s really to improve their income stream and funding problems, and nothing to do with safety issues. The new suggestion in the planning proposal is that the high fence is needed to reduce the threat of a ‘terrorist attack’ – and that seems odd when terrorists don’t normally attack empty buildings and are certainly not held back by fences.
4) There is also a suggestion that the trust may have played on the knee-jerk fears that people have of the gardens not being ‘safe’ at night. The Pavilion security staff compiled their own dossier of anti-social events, and those ‘crime figures’ included people riding through the grounds on bicycles, and people nipping behind a tree to have a pee when the public toilets were closed.
5) There WAS a murder in the grounds in 2018, and that was when a sleeping homeless man had a rock dropped on his face – by a stranger who seems to have deliberately sought him out, simply because he didn’t like homeless people. It’s unlikely that the fact this attack happened in the Pavilion gardens had anything to do with this tragic event, but the fact there was CCTV in the grounds was what provided the proof that got the murderer convicted.
There was a similar case a few years ago, where a homeless man was murdered on Hove seafront, by the Putting Green. It’s not the place that causes these terrible crimes.
6) As a man, I’m maybe not the one to make statements about women’s safety (although, as a gay man, I have been queer-bashed on two occasions), but I see no difference with safety issues in a busy park than in the rest of the city centre. When I walk home, my areas to avoid are The Level, and West Street on a weekend night. St James’s street also has its moments, when you need to have your wits about you. The seafront also has a high incident rate nowadays, although at weekends there are private security patrols, paid for by the night clubs.
7) With this new fence in place, security cameras could record the comings and goings at the gates – which would act as a deterrent and add to safety. But the gates themselves don’t need to be closed off.
8) If the gates were closed at night, then at what time? Who decides on the curfew time? Midnight? Or at dusk? What then happens to all the people who use the park in the evenings, as a quiet and safe space out of the wind, and where they don’t have to pay restaurant bills or drink at pub prices. For sure, these might be students, or overseas visitors, or just people on lower incomes. Or people like me.
9) It feels like too many people commenting are those who are already home by 6pm and so, selfishly, they don’t see this closure of a public space as any loss. Many of those people probably already think that the city centre is a no go area for them at night – when for countless others it’s a place to go to evening jobs, or to socialise.
10) My apologies for writing so much but I feel quite strongly about this, not just for me or the current night time economy, but for the next generations.
Extremely well articulated Billy. Thank you for sharing a well-thought-out and comprehensive discussion on this.
How many people complaining about private events are against the ice rink which closes off a huge part of the gardens for getting on for a quarter of the year?
And that was when the council was directly running the pavilion not the Trust. And the profits went into the pavilion budget not the general council coffers.
The Planning Committee could put a condition on the application limiting how many days the gardens could be closed for private events (like the law that limits Marine Drive to 28 days closure a year). If the Trust were sensible (and they may have already done so in the application) they should offer that up themselves.
In reply to ChrisC.
You have a point there, and a compromise is the obvious way forward.
The difference with the Ice Rink is that it only uses the eastern lawns, and so no thoroughfare is blocked in the main park area, and that commercial booking is for a period when it’s not warm enough to sit outside on grass anyway. It’s a glorious stetting to go iceskating, especially after dark, and in front of a Winter Palace.
But once the rink has gone, the lawns are still fenced off to allow the grass to recover, and that is annoying for tourists and for photographers like me – and those fences only came down a week or so ago.
The fishpond/Pavilion reflection shot, first made famous by Roger Bamber in the Guardian newspaper back in the 1980s, and recently shown at the Bamber retrospective exhibition at Brighton Museum, was replicated for the first time this year only yesterday.
People aren’t against the idea of events being held in the Pavilion grounds, but it’s like: how often? And who are those concerts for, and at what ticket prices? Pride tickets start at about £30quid, but Glyndebourne seats are £200 +. I’ve noticed how few free festival events there are this year.
We’ve certainly moved on from the days when there was a free brass band concert playing military hits or hymns, and with neat rows of free deckchairs.
The regular night closure thing is a more serious worry, and one which is simply a cost-cutting exercise on behalf of the trust – at the expense of lost facilities for local residents and visitors. Plus the pathways through the gardens are for many their scenic walking route home after work etc. You can’t really put a price on community stuff like this.
I’ve said before that closing off the Pavilion Gardens at night is a bit like your mum or dad closing off the household kitchen after 6pm – because they’re concerned that we kids might raid the fridge. You’re effectively applying the wrong draconian solution to a perceived problem, when better parenting and shared cleaning are the true longer term solutions.
That’s why I think this pause will be a good thing and will focus the Trust into clarifying many of those issues.
The “how often” should be easier to sort.
The ticket prices won’t be an issue as these will likely be for corporate bookings and large weddings / celebration than public concerts.