Seagull Weekly Briefing 09/01

Happy New Year, and welcome to the Brighton Seagull's Monday Briefing! We've missed you, and we hope you've missed seeing us in your inbox. Shh, it's okay, we're back now, local news is safe again.

Bus fares cut to £2 (for a single journey)

You read that right: until the end of March, all single bus journeys will cost £2 on Brighton and Hove Buses.

The offer is funded through a £60 million scheme under the Government’s Help for Households program which aims to help the public with cost of living pressures, particularly in the winter months.

However, any journeys where you have to change a bus will incur an extra £2—it is £2 per single journey on one bus.

Any fares under £2 will not change, so nobody will be paying more for journeys.

The reduced fare is available to all, whether paying in cash, on the app, or with a contactless card.

Nick Hill, commercial director at Brighton & Hove Buses said:

With the cost of living pressures on everyone’s mind, we are thrilled to be able to offer our passengers capped fares this winter.

The scheme will enable passengers to go further than ever for £2, so everyone can enjoy a little more freedom when using our services.

To find out more, click here.

Third phase of Valley Gardens project starting soon

The final phase of the Valley Gardens project is set to start this spring, The Seagull can confirm.

The works will see the Aquarium roundabout removed and replaced with a T junction, a process which will take nearly two years to finish.

This comes alongside works starting this week on a new pedestrian and cycle path from Madeira Drive to Brighton Marina.

The Valley Gardens project, a transformation from The Level to the Pier, began in autumn of 2018. It was meant to cost £7.8 million, and has now cost close to £13 million.

According to the council, there will also be new segregated cycle lanes running from Victoria Gardens to the seafront through new pedestrianised areas in front of the Pavilion and south of the Old Steine, a new taxi rank near the Palace Pier junction, more blue badge and doctors’ parking bays and new trees planted.

🖋 News in Brief 🖋

• There are new food donation points for Fareshare food banks and charities at Brighton Town Hall, Hove Town Hall, and the staff entrance of Bartholomew House. Donations particularly wanted are long-life dry food goods, such as tinned meat, fish and vegetables, and tea and coffee, and treat items. They cannot take anything past its use by and best before date. It is also nice to receive donations of luxury items.
• Nearly £200,000 in active travel funding has been secured by the council, which means exciting changes coming for all those who enjoy walking, wheeling and cycling around the city. During the next year, the money will be invested in better infrastructure and projects across the city, including an eBike commuter pilot project, adult cycling courses and family cycling courses, community walking projects, support and development of the city’s interactive online cycle map, and Brighton & Hove’s first Walking Festival in June. Watch this space!
• 81 days until the Volks returns!!!

What's happening? Brighton and Hove is officially the gayest place in England and Wales. Or, at least, it has the most people over the age of 16 who identify as LGBT+ living in it, according to recently released 2021 census data.

The rumours are true! Nationally, the percentage of people identifying as gay, bisexual or lesbian is 3.2%—that's 7.5% less than the percentage for the city, where 10.7% of respondents are not straight. The percentage of people nationally who identify as straight is 89.4%, much higher than the 80.6% of people in Brighton and Hove who are straight.

Can you break that down further? Sure can! We've got 5.83% of the city who are gay or lesbian, 3.79% who are bisexual, 0.65% are pansexual, 0.13% are asexual, 0.28% identify as queer, and 0.05% identify as another, unlisted sexual orientation. Interestingly, 8.66% of people aged 16 years and over in Brighton and Hove did not answer.

What about transgender people? 0.99% of people aged 16 years and over in Brighton and Hove have a gender identity different from their sex registered at birth. Of that, 0.14% of people identified as a trans woman, 0.15% as a trans man, and 0.35% as non-binary. The city has the highest percentage of non-binary people in England and Wales—the percentage of non-binary people across England and Wales is 0.06%.

So where in the city has the most gay people? Unsurprisingly, it's Kemptown, where 20.11% of people aged 16 years and over are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another sexual orientation.

What about other identities in the city? Roundhill has the most bisexual people, at 7.91%; Seven Dials has the highest percentage of people who have a gender identity different from their sex registered at birth at 1.78%.

Give me some numbers. In total, there are 189,745 respondents in Brighton and Hove who identify as straight. The most popular sexual orientation after that is gay or lesbian at 13,726. There are 8,916 bisexual people, 1,525 pansexual people, 314 people who are asexual, and 654 who are queer. A total 20,375 did not answer the question about their sexual identity.

I want even more data! You'd best have a play around with the map here, then.