The Brighton & Hove Wrap - 3rd January 2025
Sixth-form teachers to strike, MBE awarded + future of bus fare cap
👩🏫 National Education Union (NEU) members from BHASVIC and Varndean College will go on strike on the 7th, 8th and 9th of January. The NEU members are asking for a government pay deal for teachers to be extended to sixth-form college staff.
🏢 Language school EC Brighton will house students above the Co-op on London Road, Brighton, in part of an agreement for this academic year.
💰 On Brighton and Hove News, Felice Southwell has analysed how developers’ payments to the community - funds intended to mitigate the effects of new developments - are spent in Brighton & Hove. More of the money allocated in 2022-23 was spent within the wards where the development was planned than in 2019-2020.
🏭 Defence contractor L3 Harris is appealing the council’s decision to refuse planning permission for a temporary warehouse on its Moulsecoomb site.
🍲 The BBC profiles Sussex Surplus, a food waste charity that “is now serving hot meals to at least 100 people” in Whitehawk each week.
🎧 The Silent Disco, which was due to host a New Year’s Eve event on the i360, says it has lost thousands of pounds owing to the sudden closure of the attraction.
🛕 There’s a behind-closed-doors tour of the Pavilion happening on Wednesday 8th - booking available here.
🚌 People took 41.4 million bus journeys in Brighton & Hove in the year to March 2024, reports The Argus. This was up from 38.8 million in the previous period but is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels of bus travel.
⚽ Whitehawk’s football team for women, non-binary people and the LGBTQ+ community is looking for new players.
🚝 Emergency track repairs shut the rail line between Brighton and Haywards Heath on Thursday.
🚍 Keeping the £2 cap on Brighton & Hove bus fares has been ruled out because it would cost £14 million a year, reports Brighton and Hove News.
🚨 Two men have been charged with rape, reports the BBC. The charges relate to the assault of a 19-year-old man in Steine Lane in the early hours of 21st December.
🚨 Seperately, Sussex Police confirms that a man was charged on 30th December with the abduction and rape of a 13-year-old girl following an investigation in Brighton.
🎄 There’s a list of places and ways to recycle or dispose of your Christmas tree via the council’s website.
🏅 Hove businessman and charity leader Rob Starr, founder of young people’s charity The Starr Trust, has been named in the New Year Honours List. He’ll be made an MBE for services to young people and philanthropy.
📯 The Volk’s Electric Railway celebrated the 200th anniversary of the invention of railways by joining a toot salute on New Year’s Day.
