A community is calling for support for its plans for a “pocket park” on two street corners that currently house communal bins.
People living in St Aubyns, Hove, asked for a pocket park on the corner of Kingsway, the A259 seafront road, back in June 2022.
Now their project is one of several vying for a share of developers’ cash to cover the cost of planting the park.
Brighton and Hove City Council is holding a public vote on its website to gauge support.
The council’s website includes a page on the St Aubyns Pocket Park proposal.
The plans form part of the A259 cycleway proposals and a successful bid would contribute towards the cost of plants classed as appropriate to the “maritime conditions”.
Sue Kalicinska, from Friends of St Aubyns Park, said: “This community-led project is aiming to transform the southern end of St Aubyns, adjacent to the Kingsway, into a green and pleasant space for all to enjoy.
“New plans have now been designed. Our aims include relocating the bins into the road, repaving the area and providing planting to improve our environment.
“The cycle racks will be retained and the bins will be disguised by a sculptural wall.”
Students from Brighton University’s architecture and urban design MA course have helped draw up the plans.
The council’s Better Brighton and Hove fund is made up of money collected by Brighton and Hove City Council from the “community infrastructure levy” charged to developers.
Every electoral ward has at least £22,000 to spend from the Better Brighton and Hove Fund – and more in wards where more schemes are approved.
For example, Westdene and Hove Park, where several schemes have been given planning permission, has the largest sum available – nearly £91,000.
People have five votes and a choice of 749 ideas on Brighton and Hove City Council’s website, with voting due to close on Tuesday 5 May.
On paper it sounds like a good idea, but I wonder if the residents in the properties immediately behind the park would be so keen to lose light, from tree shading, and gain more noise from people “enjoying” the park with a little light refreshment. Presumably the bins would take up one or two parking spaces. Are the Friends of St Aubyns Park going to weed, water and tend the plants because I doubt the council will get too involved.
Bins are already in the road… I have to agree, if someone planted a tree Infront of my living room window I wouldn’t be massively impressed. Equally it’s a very windy spot there so anything that’s planted there probably won’t last the winter. Money would be better spent putting a decent fence around the church at the top of the road, which currently has a grave yard that’s pretty much a shooting gallery most evenings
It’s already a park. A bin park with a few bike racks taking out resident parking spaces that they have paid through the nose for.
I live in the flat on the corner that you can see in the picture above. I am in support of the plan as it’s such an awful view when bins aren’t collected or when people dump items they don’t want anymore. I also own Gaia, a plant shop on Victoria Terrace, and have offered our services for maintenance and watering as well as suggesting appropriate plants and trees that will fit in with the environment and surrounding properties. It’ll be such a nice improvement for the area from something that is so ugly to something the whole community can enjoy.
Lee, thanks so much for a local resident and shop perspective and I for one appreciate your offer to help tend this proposed garden. I happen to agree with you that I would much prefer to look out on a garden and trees than concrete and bins. And being south facing the trees could also provide some much appreciated shading in these ever warming temperatures we are experiencing.