Seagull Weekly Briefing 18/10

Good morning, and welcome to the Brighton Seagull's Weekly Briefing. Team Seagull watched the BBC's excellent documentary on the Grand Hotel bombing last night: fascinating in and of itself, but particularly interesting for some of the background footage of old Brighton and interviews with the manager of the Pink Coconut nightclub. A strong recommend from us.

Kemptown Post Office closure

The St George's Road post office is closing on Monday 28th October, The Seagull can confirm, in what residents are calling 'awful news'.

In a letter from the Post Office's area manager, it was revealed that the closure comes from the 'resignation of the postmaster and the withdrawal of the premises for Post Office use'.

According to the letter, future services in the area will 'reflect customer numbers and usage'—a Post Office may return, it would just look different, basically.

Labour councillor Gary Wilkinson said:

The local community is rightly shocked and saddened, and the closure will have a dramatic impact on both residents and businesses.

It is imperative that the Post Office does everything it can to reinstate a service to the community.

The Seagull can also reveal that the news was publicly shared from the Post Office before staff were told.

The nearest alternative branches are on St James's Street and Whitehawk Road.

Flooding and coastal erosion prevention project coming next year

A project will soon be underway to protect part of the city from coastal erosion and flooding.

A new groyne field on the beach is set to be built on the beach between the King Alfred Leisure Centre and Second Avenue, extending the beach by around 25m out to sea.

The bays between the groynes will be filled with thousands of tonnes of shingle, dredged from the Channel.

The aim of the project is to slow the movement of shingle along the coastline to protect the area, and to reduce the amount of shingle which washes up onto the promenade during storms and high tides.

The work should start next year and finish in summer 2026.

If approved, work is scheduled to get underway in 2025 and scheduled to finish in summer 2026.

🖋 News in Brief 🖋

• Big recycling news: different colour bin lids are being introduced to help differentiate recycling bins. Orange bins are for cartons, pink bins are for small electricals, burgundy lids are for glass and light blue lids are for general recycling.
• The Co-op in Kemptown is open again! Co-ops have been doing lots of updates recently, when one of Team Seagull was in Dorset a few weeks back, there was a Co-op there closed for a refresh too. Seems a weird time to do it, but what do we know? We're not minor supermarket chain facilities managers.
• Francis Tonks, a former mayor of Brighton & Hove, councillor, and miner, has died at the age of 98. The second mayor of the city, elected in 1998, he was also a councillor for Moulsecoomb and Bevendean for 22 years, a teacher at Moulsecoomb Secondary Modern, and a lecturer at what was then known as Brighton Technical College (now Brighton MET). His funeral is on Wednesday at St George's Church, Kemptown, at 2pm.

What's happening? A petition started on Sunday 6th October has been signed by more than 335 people calling for the council to pause the school boundaries consultation.

What's the deal? The council started a consultation at the start of October to find out what residents think about possible changes to secondary school admissions arrangements. 

What's the issue with the current system? The city is experiencing reducing student numbers, which the council say is affecting secondary schools, alongside inequality issues which we wrote about here. As a result, the council wants to review the number of pupils the city’s secondary schools take and the catchment areas where students attending our schools come from. 

What does the petition say? The 'flawed and rushed consultation on school boundaries for Brighton and Hove' petition is asking for a 'meaningful, impartial and evidence based consultation'.

What are the undersigned's concerns? That the consultation has been 'poorly publicised, rushed and flawed', and that there has been:

• Limited data available on the council's proposals, not presented in an accessible way
• Limited time and opportunity for feedback from parents, 'with meetings at times when parents are putting kids to bed'
• Limited warning for the consultation and meetings
• A 'leading and flawed questionnaire that forces people to answer yes or no to complex questions'.

The petition says:

The proposals have far reaching implications and although the objectives of reducing inequality are welcomed, the process by which this has been managed so far is not adequate for a meaningful consultation.

What are the council's proposals? There are three possible models for changing the current system, which are:

• To modify the existing system by changing the published admission numbers.
• To split the city into four catchment areas (instead of the current six), so that 'more families have the opportunity to realistically express a preference for more than one school'.
• To have single school catchment areas (eight in total), which would mean 'clear arrangements with certainty about the catchment area school', and would 'develop a clear transition link between primary and secondary education'.

Would this apply to all schools? Only council schools, not academies and church schools, though they would be encouraged to work with the council on the changes.

When would the changes come into place? September 2026.  

What happens when the consultation period ends? Cabinet will decide whether to carry out a formal consultation on making a change to secondary school admission arrangements in November.

What can I do if I want to have my say? The survey is open until Wednesday 23rd October, and the petition is linked above.