Hove Civic Society January 2017 newsletter investment and maintenance and we hope to package all Chairman’s letter this and share it with you in the next newsletter. We might even make this our focus for the 2017 Forum in April. Dear Members, Why do we do this? Apart from being one of our objectives I firmly believe that we need these initiatives A happy and healthy New Year to all of you! to counter in a very modest way the cuts happening to Council expenditure. I don’t think many people have yet New Year is a good time to look at not only personal realised the cumulative impact of the cuts for the coming objectives but also those of the organisations we are years and I fear that inevitably our environment will be the involved in. The objectives of Hove Civic Society are area that will suffer most. straightforward and simple: I have had many discussions with local politicians, a. To encourage high standards of architecture and town business leaders and local residents and whilst many planning in Hove. are astounded at the run down nature of much of our public space, nobody has been able to explain to me why b. To educate the public in the geography, history and we collectively seem to accept it as inevitable. I doubt architecture in Hove. that many of us would let our living room deteriorate to the standard of our pavements, streets and other public c. To encourage the preservation, development and space. improvement of features of general public amenity or historic interest. I am delighted that we have new members on the committee willing to give this agenda a whirl – anybody Our first objective we achieve in the main through our who wants to join or help in another way please let me continuous watch and comments on planning applications know. and the development of city planning policy. However, increasingly we have taken the view that architecture and Finally a few words about our objective b. Our planning doesn’t just involve buildings but also the educational role has hitherto largely been fulfilled by our spaces in between. Many of those spaces are woefully lecture programmes, where attendance has been neglected and ignored but with some improvements could moderate at best. Best attendance has been at our make for a much better city to be enjoyed by us all. Forum events and at the AGMs. The programme requires much preparation and is connected with fixed costs, This is the reason why we are very supportive of planning which occur whether we have a large or small audience. proposals such as the Hove Gardens scheme in Conway Street by Matsim, where the developer is prepared to set For this winter we have, after much debate, changed the aside £1m for environmental improvements to the streets times to have a standard evening slot and we are surrounding the development. monitoring the results. For next year Clare Tikly is standing down after having produced several years of If permission is granted to the scheme we would see a excellent programmes and we urgently need a substantial and much needed uplift in the area, which replacement. Perhaps this will push us to review in more could trigger further improvements by private investment. depth our lecture programme and how we will deliver it. Whilst we are supporting the very well designed scheme as a whole, we believe that this proposed investment at With best wishes ground level starts to provide critical enhancements at eye level – that is the part of a new development which Helmut Lusser people will experience most. This is also why we are supporting the objectives for King Alfred as we heard in April, where much effort will be Membership subscriptions spent on designing the spaces between the new buildings to create an eminently usable, attractive and welcoming Please can I remind all members that subscriptions are atmosphere. In that context it doesn’t matter if a building now due for the year 2016-2017. At only £12 for a single is ten or 15 storeys high, or in the case of King Alfred, 17, and £20 per couple’s membership this represents good 18 or 20. If it is well designed then height is only one of value, covering as it does, our series of winter lectures, many concerns and height alone should never determine summer events and 3 newsletters per year. whether a building is permitted or not. We would strongly recommend that members pay via However, I am straying, my point is that we need to be standing order as this helps us to reduce time spent on concerned with the space between buildings as much as administration. The necessary standing order instruction with the buildings themselves – a key to good town you can find at the bottom of the membership application planning. This is why your committee at the moment is form. Go to: carrying out a review to explore to what extent we can be more involved in encouraging developments and http://www.hovecivicsociety.org/sites/hovecivic.org.uk/ improvements to our public spaces, much of which are in files/hcs-application-form.pdf conservation areas. This of course also relates to objective ‘c’. Also, may I remind members to ensure that we are kept up to date should you change your email address. This is We expect our programmes on Street Tree Planting and particularly important so that we can continue to remind the Hove Sculpture Plinth to continue and evolve. We are you of upcoming events and keep you informed about the exploring how we could pick up on our ideas for a progress of our campaigns via our newsletter. competition to find a better standard for the setting of on- street refuse and recycling containers and we will expect Kindest regards, to play a significant role in the improvement scheme for Subscriptions please! Church Road. Helen Phillips £12 single There are many other ideas being raised at the moment Membership Secretary £20 per couple such as our representation to the Council on seafront [email protected] but a souvenir programme of the Brighton event, “Carve The King Alfred project - a message their names with Pride”, is most interesting. The four plaques were revealed there for the first time, and will be from Rob Starr officially unveiled at separate events this year. Dear Members of Hove Civic Society Lieut. Jacqueline Nearne was born in 1916 and her family relocated to France in 1923. In 1942 Jacqueline and her A short update for you on the current proposal for the King Alfred, bearing in mind that I am still constrained by sister escaped to England via Spain and Portugal. After what I am able to say at this time. Constraints on what I training she was parachuted into France the following am able to say and not say at this time are vital to year, and she carried messages by train to and from ensuring that the project does not break any competition Resistance cells for a year. She was awarded the MBE rules. However, that does not mean it is not extremely and Croix de Guerre, and then worked for the United frustrating for you and for me to be constrained in this Nations in New York until retirement. way. Capt. Ronald Taylor (1916-2002) joined the Royal What I can say here is that the King Alfred project Engineers in 1939 and volunteered for the S.O.E. two remains on course and that BHCC seems focused and years later. He trained in Palestine, then was posted to keen for the development agreement to be completed, Italy to assist Italian partisans fighting the Germans. In effectively allowing us to enter into the planning process 1944 his team and the Italians joined up with Yugoslav and of course start fully engaging with the public in a partisans to support their successful struggle. In February consultation process. This is the main focus now for all 1945 they flew back from Yugoslavia to England. Capt. involved in the project. Taylor was awarded a Mention in Despatches and the Italian Partisan Medal. As expected, being a new year and a year since the bid was awarded to my team, there has once again been Capt. Michael Trotobas was born in 1914 of a French press speculation and non-stories floating around. Whilst father and Irish mother. His mother died and as a child I expected this to happen, it is rather unhelpful for the he was sent to live in France, then Ireland, and joined the press to speculate so much and more so to try and sow a Middlesex Regiment in 1933. He was wounded in France seed of doubt on the project. and fortunate to be evacuated from Dunkirk. He then volunteered for the S.O.E. and was parachuted into I can assure you that the France in September 1941. One month later he was arrested, but managed to project is moving ahead escape the following July, returning to England via Spain and Portugal. Two months later he was parachuted into I can“ assure you that the project is moving ahead and so France again, to create a new circuit in and around Lille, much work is being done in the background to ensure and from May 1943 he began sabotage operations. Six that the legal process is followed and completed months later the enemy forced their way into his lodgings correctly and that the development sticks to its core and he was killed instantly.