Council "Neglecting" Brighton's Old Steine Says Community Leader

A landmark fountain stopped working for a week – less than a year after a 10-month restoration project costing £400,000.

A celebration was held last October to mark the renovation of the Victoria Fountain, in Old Steine, Brighton, but last month the water stopped flowing.

Old Steine resident and business owner Gary Farmer included the failure of the fountain in a list of issues that, he said, had dogged the area and indicated council neglect.

Mr Farmer, founder of the Old Steine Community Association and a director of the Valley Gardens Forum, took a senior Labour councillor on a walk around the area earlier this year to show him the problems.

But since February, when Mr Farmer raised his concerns with Councillor Trevor Muten, a member of Brighton and Hove City Council’s newly formed cabinet, the problems have worsened.

Mr Farmer said:

“Nothing has been done to address any of the issues raised.

“Yet again it feels like you have all abandoned Old Steine to the litter, graffiti, drunks, anti-social behaviour, potholes, tagging and everything else that is wrong with the area.

“The fountain has been off now for days. Why? It is summer and visitors are here. Tourists flock to the area and are presented with an empty and forgotten wasteland. It simply isn’t good enough.

“I am left in amazement by the council’s outright neglect of Old Steine. It is simply awful and you should all hang your heads in shame.”

Mr Farmer runs a language school in Old Steine which brings thousands of international students a year to Brighton.

He was concerned not just about the fountain. Large parts of Old Steine are grassless after festival season, with the Spiegeltent having been based in the area in May.

Event or venue organisers are usually responsible for restoring parks and grass areas as part of their hire contract with the council.

But work on the layout of the area is expected to start later this year as part of a £13 million project known as Valley Gardens phase 3.

The council said:

“The Victoria fountain was temporarily out of action for just over a week after a small leak was detected from an underground pipe.

“This has now been repaired and the fountain is working again.

“Work to fully restore grass on the area of the Old Steine which hosted the Spiegeltent will take place during the construction of Valley Gardens 3.

“As part of Valley Gardens 3, we will be creating new paths in this area and, once that is complete, we will re-landscape the entire gardens – including where the Spiegeltent was.

“We do not want to spend money fully restoring this area when improvement work is already planned.”