The Argus • 09/12/2024

Home Office to sell former prison bought to house asylum seekers

The previous Tory government acquired the HMP Northeye site near Bexhill for £15.4 million in a bid to accommodate asylum seekers. In a letter to local MP Kieran Mullan today, Angela Eagle, a minister for border security and asylum, confirmed that the Labour government will now be selling it instead. Dame Eagle wrote: “The purchase of the Northeye site was made under the previous Government. This Government inherited an asylum system under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of ca...

The Argus • 03/12/2024

Works has begun on £7 million pound expansion of hospital

Hospital colleagues were joined by invited guests and construction partners Morgan Sindall on November 22 to celebrate building works getting underway for a new urgent treatment centre. Known as UTCs, urgent treatment centres provide faster medical help for people when their condition is not life-threatening. They offer appointments via the NHS 111 service and are equipped to investigate, diagnose and treat the most common illnesses people come to A&E for. It was announced in the sum...

The Argus • 30/11/2024

Year-round sea water testing will be done by volunteers in new scheme

Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove and Portslade and Bella Sankey, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, approached Southern Water and got them to agree to fund the project. Residents volunteered to be part of the citizen science project and were trained to use testing equipment. Peter Kyle MP and Bella Sankey being shown how the testing equipment works (Image: Peter Kyle MP) The volunteers, many of whom are open water swimmers, test the Hove seawater every other day. READ MORE: Brig...

The Argus • 29/11/2024

Majority of Sussex MPs vote in favour of Assisted Dying Bill

The first assisted dying debate in the House of Commons in almost a decade took place on Friday. Assisted dying could now be legalised in England and Wales after a historic vote saw proposed legislation clear its first hurdle in Parliament. The new law is proposing to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. This would only affect terminally adults who are expected to die within six months and who have been resident in England and Wales and registered with a GP for at least 12 m...

The Argus • 28/11/2024

Short bus journeys to be capped at £1

Brighton and Hove City Council is capping short single journeys around the city from December 1 until January 31, 2025. Passengers will be able to check local operators' websites to discover where you can get to for £1. They will be working with all the local bus operators and using funding from their Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). The BSIP, which was approved in September 2021, aims to grow passenger numbers, increase bus passenger satisfaction levels and improve bus reliabili...

The Argus • 21/11/2024

Albion, Fatboy Slim and politicians remember the man who said yes to the Amex dream

Though many may know him as a key figure of Sir Tony Blair’s New Labour project, across Sussex Mr Prescott is celebrated as helping to usher in the “new era of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club”. John Prescott speaking at the AITC in the Amex, from left: Peter Kyle, Nancy Platts and Martin Perry (Image: The Argus) Martin Perry, former chief executive of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, has paid tribute saying: “Lord Prescott was a key player in our fight for planning permission f...

The Argus • 21/11/2024

Tributes to former deputy prime minister John Prescott who helped with Amex campaign

The former trade union activist and ex-merchant seaman died “peacefully” and surrounded by relatives at his care home, they said. Though many may know him as a key figure of Sir Tony Blair’s New Labour project, across Sussex Mr Prescott is celebrated as helping to usher in the “new era of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club”. John Prescott with former Albion chairman Dick Knight at Withdean (Image: The Argus) Brighton and Hove Albion had been without a home since the Goldstone Ground...

The Argus • 20/11/2024

Two schools in Hove consider joining academy despite council pleas

West Hove Infant School and Hove Juniors are currently engaged in a four week consultation on plans to join the Aurora Multi Academy Trust (MAT). The two schools have worked closely together and even formed the Hove Learning Federation following a public consultation in 2021. Yesterday, Brighton and Hove City Council urged the schools to reconsider the proposal. If the schools were to join the trust it would move them out of local authority control.  Parents, carers and staff are...

The Argus • 19/11/2024

Council urges schools to rethink plans to join academy trust

West Hove Infant School and Hove Juniors are currently engaged in a  four week consultation to consider a proposal to join the Aurora Multi Academy Trust (MAT). The two schools have worked closely together and even formed the Hove Learning Federation following a public consultation in 2021. If the schools were to join the trust it would move them out of local authority control.  Parents, carers and staff are being asked to comment on the proposals, which the council believes will lea...

The Argus • 19/11/2024

Local MP secures £20 million in funding after lobbying government

Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne Josh Babarinde has announced that he has secured the future of the £20 million Towns Fund to be spent in the town. The government funding was originally pledged in March, but Labour ministers placed it under review in July, with many fearing it would be scrapped altogether. Mr. Babarinde met with government ministers to urge them to protect the funding for Eastbourne, wrote to them, and raised it on the floor of the House of Commons to try and secure the fund’s...

The Argus • 19/11/2024

'We were fighting a losing battle' MP and residents react to Royal Mail lease grant

The cabinet at Brighton and Hove City Council approved the leasehold grant of the site in Patcham Court Farm at a meeting on Wednesday 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. Residents in Patcham have been fighting against the development for over a year, forming the  campaign group Patcham Against Royal Mail with hundreds supporting the cause.  The entrance to the site in Patcham Farm Court (Imag...

The Argus • 19/11/2024

MPs and farmers among the tens of thousands of protesters in Westminster

The rally, which was attended by an estimated 13,000 people in Westminster, according to police, was held alongside a mass lobby. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) held the mass lobby of MPs with 1,800 of its members, three times as many people as originally planned, to urge backbenchers to stand up to the Government’s plans to impose inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million. The protest aims to highlight the impact of the recent Budget on their farms, specifically the changes...

The Argus • 14/11/2024

Hundreds of parents rally to save school from closure

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Hollingdean, Brighton, sent out a letter to parents and carers on Monday to announce they are consulting on its closure. The school highlighted a "declining birth rate in Brighton and Hove" as one of the main contributing factors. In the letter it mentioned that various options had been explored but due to "no viable solutions" the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton is now consulting a proposal for its closure. St Joseph's Catholic Primary School h...

The Argus • 12/11/2024

Council reopens high-rise business hub

New England House reopened to its tenants today after being shut over the weekend so the necessary fire safety mitigations could be put in place. Brighton and Hove City Council has apologised to the traders affected. It said it was forced to close the building at short notice after a fire safety report uncovered “intolerable” safety risks. Businesses in the building, in New England Street, Brighton, said they were losing thousands of pounds in revenue every day as the busy Christmas peri...

The Argus • 07/11/2024

Local politicians fear for 'national security' as Trump is elected president

Trump has been elected the 47th president of the United States. The victory marks an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Mr Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. Speaking to his supporters on Wednesday morning, Mr Trump claimed he had won “an unprecedented...

The Argus • 07/11/2024

All the new and reduced prices set for Beryl rental bikes

Beryl BTN Bikes has reduced the cost of its travel options as part of a series of price changes. A new 50-minute bundle has also been introduced, as well as discounts for the city’s students and a new 72-hour Weekend Pass. The new weekday Pay as You Ride tariff means a typical 23-minute journey will cost less than £2.50 and less than £4.50 on an e-bike. For those purchasing minute bundles, the cost of an e-bike journey goes down to as little as £2.64, still with no unlock fee. Be...

The Argus • 01/11/2024

Bus company slams new bus fare cap as 'regressive'

The Big Lemon has expressed that the decision to raise the bus fare cap to £3 is a ‘regressive step for sustainable transport’. On Tuesday the Prime Minister said the new cap, which was formally unveiled in yesterday’s Budget, will be in place until the end of 2025. Sir Keir Starmer said: “On the £2 bus fare, the first thing to say is the Tories only funded that until the end of 2024 and therefore that is the end of the funding in relation to a £2 capped fare. “I do know how much thi...

The Argus • 12/10/2024

Brighton came together in one of its darkest days - 40 Year anniversary of the bomb

With all their clothes and personal possessions left behind or destroyed by the bomb on October 12, 1984, they were left covered in dust. Brighton came together in a moment of urgency and opened its doors to help those that had been affected by the explosion. From superstores to the NHS, they were ready for the challenge that lay ahead. Hours later at 7.30am a coach took people from near The Grand to Churchill Square shopping centre. In Steve Ramsey’s book about the Brighton Bomb...

The Argus • 12/10/2024

Family of MP killed in Brighton bomb pay tribute to 'wonderful and warm' father

The explosive, which was planted during the Conservative Party Conference, detonated at 2.54am on October 12, 1984 - killing five and leaving several severely injured. Sir Anthony Berry, who was then MP for Enfield Southgate, is one of the people who died in the incident. His then-wife Sarah was left hospitalised. Sir Anthony left behind six children and his death would trigger a series of events in their lives that still have an impact today. The debris caused by the bomb at The Gra...

The Argus • 17/09/2024

MP slams 190-home development as she submits formal objection

Beccy Cooper, who represents West Worthing, has made her feelings known to Arun District Council over the bid for homes on land west of Bewley Road in Angmering.  Gleeson Land submitted an application in August for up to 190 homes including 57 affordable homes and a community building. The bid has been condemned by villagers in the area. They formed an action group, Protect Farmland West of Bewley Road, in an attempt to stop any new developments. People in Angmering have been taking...