The Argus • 18/03/2025

Company director put residents in high-rise flats at risk of 'potential death'

Mr Anthony Coates, from Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, was the director of two companies involved in the purchase and renovation of Columbia House in Romany Road, Worthing around 2022. The former office building was being converted into a seven-storey high-rise block of flats. Coates allowed the flats to be occupied before the escape routes, the corridor and stairs, were signed off as fire safety compliant, West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service said. The fire service said that this “neglig...

The Argus • 12/03/2025

Hove high street's ‘longest serving’ store thriving 40 years on amid vinyl revival

Julian Pelling has owned Fine Records in George Street, Hove since 1984 after taking it over from the previous owners. The store sells a wide range of new and pre-used Classical CD’s and also specialises in stock of Jazz, nostalgia, and soundtracks on second hand vinyl records including many rare collectables all in mint or near mint condition. Julian spoke to The Argus, sharing how “special” his time has been on the Hove high street. “We have had marvellous times over the last 40 ye...

The Argus • 27/02/2025

Albion renew partnership with train company to provide travel for fans

Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club has announced that they have renewed their partnership with Govia Thameslink Railway on February 20. Fans travelling to Albion’s home matches in Brighton will continue to have train travel from Southern and Thameslink included with their matchday ticket to and from the Amex stadium. Albion's chief operating officer Paul Mullen said: “We are pleased to announce a new and much wider ranging partnership with Govia Thameslink Railway and delighted to we...

The Argus • 20/02/2025

Boss of company that 'plagued' households with cold calls banned

Callum Jones, 39, of Oban Road in St Leonards, was the sole director of Colourcoat Ltd, which specialised in roof cleaning, wall coating and insulation services.  Colourcoat made 969,273 unsolicited marketing calls between August 2019 and April 2020. A total of 452,811 of the nuisance calls were made to people who had opted out of receiving such calls by registering with the Telephone Preference Service.  The company also used false names and made repeated calls which were described...

The Argus • 17/02/2025

Three stores in Sussex close as Homebase goes into administration

Homebase has revealed that 33 stores will be closing this month, including its shops in Hove, Lewes and Chichester. The garden chain was waiting on around £5 million of tax rebates before collapsing into administration in November. A spokeswoman said: "Last month, Homebase announced 33 stores confirmed for closure in February. "Affected team members have been given at least two weeks notice of their effective date of redundancy by their Employee Representative and Store Manager, foll...

The Argus • 13/02/2025

Why we think Coq Block Bar is more than just another chicken shop

It seems like a new chicken shop opens every week in Brighton, but this... this is no ordinary chicken shop. The infusion of a well-established local watering hole in Block Bar, and an award-winning chicken shop in The Bok Shop, is the stuff dreamt up by true culinary entrepreneurs. The provocatively-named Coq Block Bar opened in St James's Street where Block Bar used to be in January. Myself and Steve, a humble Argus editor, had been itching to head down ever since the news broke....

The Argus • 11/02/2025

Meet the former investment banker who became a Brighton sandwich shop owner

Mark Scates, who lives in Ovingdean, opened his sandwich and soup shop Crunch & Co in Church Street, Brighton, at the beginning of 2019. "When we were starting up in 2019, we were getting so busy and it kept going up until we got to Christmas, and then it just went all went off all of a sudden," he told The Argus, "we had been affected by Covid hugely, like everyone else has, really especially in this area." (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta / The Argus) In a 2022 annual economic assessment by Cen...

The Argus • 06/02/2025

New drive-thru McDonald's could be coming to Hove

McDonald's submitted a planning application on January 7 to build a store in Old Shoreham Road, Hove. The fast food giant applied for a freestanding drive-thru restaurant, a car park and the demolition of the existing buildings. McDonald's is looking to demolish the former KAP store (Image: Google Maps) The site was originally a Suzuki car dealership in 2004, which was then replaced by Kent Auto Panels (KAP) after more than a decade of being in Hove. READ MORE: Royal Mail post box co...

The Argus • 04/02/2025

Blacks and Millets to close two stores in Sussex

Blacks and Millets have announced closures in two of their stores with a 30 per cent off 'closing down' sale. Blacks will be closing its store in North Street in Brighton, while Millets will be closing its store Montague Street, Worthing. JD Sports had rescued Blacks, which owned Millets at the time, from administration in 2012 by buying the brand, which included around 300 stores, for approximately £20 million. READ MORE: Council tax could rise again in Brighton and Hove Millets...

The Argus • 28/01/2025

'City staple' chicken shop teams up with bar to open new collaboration

The Bok Shop and Block Bar's creation, the provocatively-named Coq Block Bar, is in St James Street where Block Bar used to be. The collaboration was put together to bring 'cheap but quality' food and drinks to customers. Coq Block have combined the two stores menu (Image: Coq Block Brighton) Ben, manager at Block Bar, said: "Some of the prices across the city and especially London are just frankly ridiculous, some places are selling £23 per cocktail and that's just not feasible in this...

The Argus • 23/01/2025

Sainsbury’s plans to shut four cafes in Sussex as part of big jobs cull

The supermarket giant announced it would be cutting 3,000 jobs and closing all of its remaining cafes this morning following a ‘particularly challenging cost environment’. The staff reduction represents around two per cent of the company’s current 148,000-strong workforce. It will see about 20 per cent of senior management roles cut as part of plans to focus on fewer, bigger roles and to simplify its head office and management teams. The retailer also said it had decided to close its...

The Argus • 17/01/2025

New independent coffee shop opens its doors in Brighton

Spro Coffee Co officially opened in Norfolk Square, Brighton on Monday. Jordi van Dyk began preparing the store in December to for its launch in the new year.  Spro took over from 1UP Cafe, which closed in November, after being at the premises since 2021. Spro were offering free oat coffees on its opening day (Image: Argus/Ramy Abou-Setta) For the coffee shop's opening Spro worked alongside, Oatly and Elsewhere Coffee, to bring free oat coffees to the new customers. Jordi said: "...

The Argus • 15/01/2025

Italian restaurant has shut down

Carluccio's in Eastgate Square, Chichester shut on January 12, and will be put on the market for sale. The Italian dining chain fell into administration in 2020. The business – which was founded by Antonio Carluccio in 1991 – hired insolvency specialists in March of that same year, after the impact of coronavirus exacerbated the firm’s long-standing financial difficulties. However, in May 2020, the brand and 30 of its restaurants was saved in a rescue deal by Boparan Restaurant Group...

The Argus • 09/01/2025

New sand sports centre on seafront due to open in summer

The new facilities at the newly developed Hove Beach Park and will be run by Yellowave, which already operates at the Kemp Town end of Brighton beach. A planning application was submitted by the operator to Brighton and Hove City Council on December 17 to demolish the existing Western Esplanade public toilets and erect a single storey detached community facility and sand sports storage. Part of the planning application is to redesign existing pavilions into a Yellowave Hub, a cafe and ki...

The Argus • 09/01/2025

Rolls-Royce pump £300 million pounds into West Sussex manufacturing site

Rolls-Royce has announced an additional £300m in funding for its Goodwood manufacturing site based in Chichester. The Goodwood facility employs more than 2,500 people and produces up to 28 vehicles per day. It was granted planning permission in March for the changes, which will allow it to be better prepared for the brand’s switch to an electric-only brand by the end of 2030. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars (RRMC) will construct five new buildings at its base in The Drive, near Goodwood and t...

The Argus • 24/11/2024

Three stores in Sussex put up for sale as Homebase goes into administration

Homebase was waiting on around £5 million of tax rebates before collapsing into administration last week. It comes as the stricken firm has set a deadline of the end of next week for potential buyers to snap up its remaining shops in the UK and Ireland. Homebase appointed administrators at consultancy Teneo after it was hit hard by an “incredibly challenging” three years for the DIY sector. Administrators struck a deal to sell Homebase to retail group CDS, which owns The Range and Wi...

The Argus • 14/11/2024

Royal Mail is granted leasehold to build new depot

The cabinet at Brighton and Hove City Council has approved to grant a leasehold of the site at Patcham Court Farm at a meeting this afternoon. The lease will be for a term of 250 years of the site to Royal Mail for the provision of a 4,145sqm delivery office. This comes after more than 1,000 objections have been raised to the planning application since its submission in July 2022. The planning application was granted in September. One of the protest signs on a resident's property (Im...

The Argus • 18/10/2024

Popular brand to open second store in city

Holland and Barrett submitted the application on September 4 to take over the empty site on 14-15 East Street in Chichester. This will be the second branch in the city, as the health store has another store on North Street. The empty site used to be a Clinton's, known for selling greeting cards, in 2018. It is unclear whether this would mean that the first branch will close and relocate. Chichester Anti-Recreation Partnership put up the sign on the empty site (Image: CARP) Bl...

The Argus • 17/10/2024

Closure date announced for M&S store

Retailer M&S had outlined plans to shut its Crawley branch in March, which prompted concerns for the future of the area. The closure is said to be part of the retailer's plans to meet changing shopping habits. It has now officially announced that the store, which has been in Queensway for decades, will close its doors for good on November 16. Graham Bennett, M&S regional manager, said: “After consulting with our colleagues following our proposals earlier this year, our Queensway stor...

The Argus • 15/10/2024

Workers' union enraged with TGI Fridays handling of axed staff

Brighton Marina staff are amongst the thousands that have been made redundant as TGI Fridays fell into administration last month.  Breal Capital and Calveton UK rescued the chain and acquired 51 restaurants but 35 restaurants have been immediately closed.  This resulted in over a thousand redundancies nationwide. It was confirmed that the Brighton Marina branch of the chain permanently closed with the nearest and only branch left open in Sussex being Crawley. TGI Fridays in Crawl...