Christmas Party 2014

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St Nick’s: our Christmas Party venue

THIS year’s Christmas party was held on Tuesday 2 December  at St Nicholas Church. About 40 people attended the party, which made a small profit for the association.

The venue also gave members a chance to inspect the recent restoration work on the church. Sussex Historic Churches Trust, awarded a grant of £5,000 towards the cost of refurbishing the fleche and repairing the tower roof.

MCHA forces council bin pledge

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The see-through bin

THE city’s unloved and poorly maintained communal bins will be replaced or refurbished in a programme following pressure from the Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association. The chair of the environment committee, Pete West, told the committee on 7th October, that the replacement programme will begin in April next year.

The pledge to replace the bins represents a significant victory for the MCHA. Cityclean, the council’s rubbish department, had no intention of replacing any of the  communal bins for at least a couple of years.

In June the Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association’s survey revealed that the communal bins in our area were in a deplorable state. The survey found that 70 per cent of the bins in our area were defective, with two topless bins and one see-through bin. One of the topless bins has subsquently had an amateurish repair job. Although the MCHA survey only covered the 50 bins in our area other parts of the city clearly had similar problems. Continue reading

Private affluence, public squalor

Broken down bin

Broken down bin

AROUND 70 per cent of the communal rubbish bins on our streets are  defective, according to a survey recently carried out by the MCHA. The scale of the defects is such that most bins are easily accessible to rats and gulls and the lack of containment for the rubbish produces an overpowering stench in hot weather.

As a result of the survey several councillors have told the MCHA that they intend to ask searching questions about the state of the bins at the next environment committee meeting, which is on 7th October. If you have any stories about the state of your local bin do drop us an email and we will pass on your concern to interested councillors.

The survey covered the 50 bins in the MCHA area and was carried out over three days in late June. After a small scale trial of bins in 2004, Cityclean, the council’s rubbish department, replaced doorstep rubbish collections in 2009 with communal bins. Continue reading

Beat the heat

Mind the gap

Mind the gap

AS THE thermometer soars and summer at last starts to kick in one of the coolest places to be in Brighton is not lying stretched out on the beach—but chilling out in one of our glorious Regency houses.

In winter, period houses can be draughty, hard to keep warm and the heating bills make the council tax bill look like small change. But in summer they come into their own and are far less likely to need air conditioning than modern houses. This is an important advantage, because it takes twice as much energy to cool a room by one degree as it does to warm the room by one degree.

All the design features of Brighton’s period houses—those fireplaces, the draughty sash windows and those thick walls—that make the houses so hard to heat in winter, make them a really cool place to be in the middle of a heatwave. Continue reading

Our AGM: the results

St Michael's

St Michael’s

This year’s annual general meeting was held on Thursday 29th May at 7:00 pm. Chairman Jim Gowans was re-elected unopposed, as were the other officers of the association. There is a full list of the current committee members here. Two places on the committee are vacant.

The meeting approved also the annual report and accounts for 2013-14.

Members who were unable to attend the annual general meeting will have received their copy of the annual report with the July issue of our newsletter, which was distributed to members in the middle of July. Our annual report and accounts can also be found here: Annual Report 2013-14.

After the formal proceedings were over Geoffrey Mead gave an illustrated talk about Sussex Literary Landscapes. The July newsletter will include a report of his talk.

 

Explore our lovely area

IMG_1693Take a walk round our lovely conservation area with local expert Geoffrey Mead, of the University of Sussex. As part of the Brighton fringe festival Dr Mead is conducting a number of tours around the area in May and June.

Dr Mead is a well-respected local tour guide and an acknowledged authority on the local architecture. The tours take an hour and a half and will take in all the main features of the area, as well as some lesser known items.

The tours start at St Nicholas Church at 2pm on 17th, 24th and 31st May. In June there are tours on 1st, 7th and 8th June. The cost is £7. For details of the next tour see our coming soon page.

Pop-up boards

Letting standards slip

Letting standards slip

ALTHOUGH the conservation area has been board-free since the end of 2012 the odd estate agent still occasionally puts up an illegal board.

This board, in Montpelier Terrace, was photographed in February. The MCHA reported it to the council and the board was removed within a week.

Estate agents’ boards were banned on residential properties in almost all of the city’s central conservation areas in September 2010. However legacy boards–those that had been put up before September 2010 could remain. This created a messy changeover.

Continue reading

The 2014 AGM

st michaelsThis year’s annual general meeting will be held at 7 pm on Thursday 29th May in St Michael’s church. After the formal business the guest speaker will be Geoff Mead, who will give an illustrated talk about Sussex Literary Landscapes.

Members should have received the 2013 minutes and this year’s agenda, together with a flyer for the talk, with the March issue of our newsletter.

For more details see our events pages

Email problems

A technical fault has meant that we did not receive any emails between mid-November and mid-January. If you sent us an email recently and did not get a reply could you please email us again on the contact form.

Save our front gardens

IMG_4833AT a recent Conservation Advisory Group MCHA chairman Jim Gowans successfully proposed a resolution urging the council to save front gardens, not just in conservation areas but throughout the City and to prevent them being turned into car parks.

Planning applications for hard-standings were made last year in Powis Grove and Victoria Street. The MCHA objected to both applications and while planning officers have turned them down an appeal has been lodged by the applicant in Powis Grove and Victoria Street has lodged a fresh application.

However, the council did grant itself permission (despite the Association’s objections) to allow the creation of a hard-standing in front of 20 Windlesham Road. Officially this road only adjoins the Montpelier and Clifton Hill Conservation Area. But the road with its elegant “arts and crafts” houses has been part of the area that the MCHA aims to protect since 1970.

This council-owned property has not only lost its garden to car parking but has also lost its beautiful original timber door and window frames. Concrete and plastic now dominate. So much for a commitment to heritage and the environment. Continue reading