Minutes of West Hove Forum meeting
Wednesday 27th July 2022 at Hove Museum
Attending: Edward Clay (WHF Chair and Wish Park Surgery PPG), Jane Galvin (WHF Secretary & KAWHRA), Martin Lawrence (WHF Treasurer and Lawrence Art Supplies), Ann Forster & Francis Leroux (Friends of Wish Park), Richard Hearnden (Friends of Stoneham Park), Mike Gibson (Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum & WHSAG), Rob Boyle (Head Gardener, Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust), Caroline Sutton (Marketing Manager, Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust), Cllr Garry Peltzer Dunn (Wish ward), Peter Reeves (KAWHRA), Jane Eleini (Secret Garden Group), Phil Withers (Hove Beach Croquet Club), Sylvia New (Healthwatch), Stephanie Kenton (Pembroke Neighbours group), Richard Robbins (local resident), Angie Starnes (Friends of Hove Lagoon)
Apologies: Cllrs Carmen Appich & Chris Henry (Westbourne ward), Cllr Robert Nemeth (Wish ward), PCSOs Aidan Goodwin & Jess Lee, Cathy Biggs (Hove Beach Hut Association & WHSAG), Helmut Lusser (Hove Civic Society), Rich Wheeler (Community Engagement Officer – West), Steph Windsor (St Leonard’s Church), Sunny Choudhury (Brighton District Bangladeshi Shomity), Rose Hetherton (WHSAG)
- Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
The minutes of the meeting on 25.5.22 were accepted.
Arising from those minutes, Mike commented that speeding is an issue near Hove Station, as it is in Portland Road, and a Community Speedwatch group is to be set up. He will report back to the forum on how this goes.
Garry said that a speed reduction is likely to be part of any proposed Mini-Holland scheme. If that doesn’t go ahead, Portland Road will be considered in isolation.
- Chair’s Report – Edward Clay
Friends of Hove Lagoon
Angie Starnes has replaced Joanne Mitchell as our Friends of Hove Lagoon representative.
Affordable Housing
The affordable housing discussion has been deferred to September, as the council officers were unavailable in July.
Lifeguards
A lifeguard post has been restored in West Hove for the school holidays (between Berriedale Avenue and Langdale Gardens). This will be open daily from 11.30am to 5.30pm.
Edward wrote to Toni Manuel (Seafront Development Manager) on behalf of the forum acknowledging her efforts in doing this. Information on the new lifeguard post has been posted on the council website but it would be helpful if this can be spread.
Weeds
Edward wrote to council leader Phélim Mac Cafferty about weeds on behalf of the West Hove Forum and has now received a reply, from which he learned nothing new. Edward believes that the council did not adequately prepare itself before implementing the decision to ban glyphosate. The most effective way of killing the weeds, he said, is using high pressure steam – this method is being used by a number of councils in the Netherlands.
Garry thought the council would welcome this advice.
Richard Hearnden commented that leaves are seldom swept up in the autumn, forming a rich compost in the gutters that only makes the situation worse.
- Community Safety
Jack Bull is to take over from Jessica Lee as the Wish Park PCSO at the end of September, when Jessica joins Response. Until then, they are working together.
- Mini-Holland feasibility study
The council officer leading the study, Laura Wells (Principal Transport Planner), was unable to attend the meeting due to the train strike.
She told us by email that the study needs to be submitted to the Department for Transport by the end of March 2023. It will be a highly competitive process with other authorities. It will cover the whole of Wish and Westbourne wards, including the boundary roads – Station/Boundary Road, the A259 and Sackville Road.
Mini-Holland involves intensive, transformational spending on local roads and streetscapes to make them, over time, as cycle and pedestrian-friendly as their Dutch equivalents. This may include installation of high-quality segregated cycle lanes on main roads, low-traffic neighbourhoods and high streets, and greater road-space allocation for people walking, as well as cycle parking at homes and destinations. You can see various schemes that Waltham Forest have done here: https://enjoywalthamforest.co.uk/work-in-your-area/
Laura said it’s important to note that Mini-Holland is not solely infrastructure but also needs to include supporting information / communication campaigns in the community in order to evoke the behaviour change needed.
Mike said he had received an information pack which he could circulate.
It was decided that we should invite Laura to an hour-long one-issue Zoom meeting as early in the autumn as possible (in addition to the usual West Hove Forum meeting). This has now been arranged for Thursday 8th September, 7pm, via Zoom.
Garry said it would be best to have the preliminary meeting without councillors involved.
- Hove Museum garden
Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust (RPMT) Head Gardener Rob Boyle attended the meeting to tell us about his ideas for Hove Museum garden.
Stephanie Kenton said that local residents had some concerns about the garden at the moment, which seemed to be a bit unloved.
Rob said that the RPMT had taken over the management of Hove Museum from Brighton & Hove City Council at the end of 2020. The Trust is just starting to recover from Covid and in the next five years they will be back up to having a proper income.
Rob is currently writing a strategy for Hove Museum garden and has lots of ideas. He is very keen on engagement with the community; for example, he’d like to work with local schools, as the Trust have done at Preston Manor, where they have shown groups of children what it’s like to look after plants and also identified different bugs. He hopes to set up a volunteer group, similar to the Friends groups in local parks. He would like it to be more like a garden than a park and wants to reduce the shrubs in autumn/winter, which should help to reduce anti-social behaviour. In the spring he would like to add a welcoming colour at the front.
Richard remarked that there were parallels with Davis Park and it would be a good idea for any new Friends group to speak to the Friends of Davis Park, who turned a dog-walking area into a fantastic park full of colour. Angie said that what had been done with Norfolk Square was also brilliant.
Edward suggested they could organise a small meeting with representatives of other Friends/garden groups in the area to share experiences and Garry said that the Trust could perhaps explain what influence local residents could have on the museum garden. Jane could provide Stephanie with links to other groups.
Edward commented that any new community group at the museum could be eligible for a Healthy Neighbourhood Fund grant.
- Healthy Neighbourhood Fund reports
Friends of Wish Park – Ann Forster and Francis Leroux
The Friends received £500 last year to buy refreshments for their volunteers and it’s been good to get together at the café and bond after gardening sessions. They’ve spent about £300 of the money so far. (They don’t always meet up afterwards as sometimes people have to get away.)
The number of volunteers varies a lot – from six people to sometimes more than twelve.
The Friends have a rota to water the new trees at least twice a week and they haven’t lost any yet despite the drought.
Gerald, the park ranger, is the cornerstone to the Friends’ activities. His hours were reduced some years ago and if there wasn’t a friends group the park would go to rack and ruin.
Friends of Hove Lagoon – Angie Starnes
The Friends of Hove Lagoon have spent all their £500 grant money – on expenses and tokens for volunteers, and on gardening tools such as wheelbarrows, spades and kneeling pads.
They’ve received a lot of compliments from the public on the planting scheme and they would love to do more. Under the Kingsway to the Sea scheme they will lose daffodils.
The outdoor gym was supposed to be sustainable for a long time, but the wood became rotten and dangerous. (It’s very close to the sea.) It was very well used but there’s no money to pay for a new gym. It would cost £15,000 to restore it as it was and £80,000 to replace it properly.
Secret Garden Group – Jane Eleini
The £500 grant money was put towards the development of the pond. They appointed a project manager, but the garden was affected by terrible vandalism, with teenagers hurling all sorts of things into the pond. Robert Nemeth dived in and retrieved a lot of them but it was suspected the lining had been punctured. This was a big setback and a bit soul-destroying.
They informed the police and are now going to install an interactive CCTV camera in a cage on a wooden pole, which they hope will be a deterrent. They will then be able to repair the pond liner.
Friends of Stoneham Park – Richard Hearnden
FoSP got £434 which was split between two projects. They spent £100 on gardening equipment and £334 for licensing fees to put on some open-air cinema screenings, which were successful and a good way for people to improve their mental health. People attended with their children.
They still have one of the licensing fees left so will show another film or two this autumn. (It needs to be dark for the projector.)
- Kingsway to the Sea update – Mike Gibson
The designers are now detailing all the elements – a planning application is to be submitted at the end of August. The big issue is how all of this will be managed and paid for. Helmut Lusser (Hove Civic Society) has suggested creating a Community Interest Company. The tennis courts are particularly problematic as other clubs in the city now run their own courts. This issue will be discussed during the autumn. Mike would like the council to identify good practice elsewhere for managing and maintaining the park, other than the model the council are proposing at the moment.
Garry said he appreciated these fears, but the planning application needs to proceed at a breakneck pace and any delay would be fatal to the scheme.
Mike suggested that the planning committee could make it a condition of approval that alternative models are explored.
- A259 cycle lane update
Prior to the meeting, we received an update by email from council officer James Hammond who is managing the project for a new A259 cycle lane between Fourth Avenue and Wharf Road.
Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) notices were placed along the proposed new A259 cycle lane route at the end of July and advertised in the press. The deadline for feedback from the public closes on 12th August. The next step is that a report will be presented to the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee with the results of the TRO. If the committee approves the proposals, construction will start in October/November and, once begun, all works should be completed within 12 weeks.
Mike commented that the need for more crossing points should be kept on our agenda.
Next meeting:
The West Hove Forum will be holding a special meeting on Thursday 8th September (7pm via Zoom) to discuss the Mini-Holland feasibility scheme and our next regular meeting is on Wednesday 28th September (2pm, venue to be confirmed).
West Hove Forum 