Tomorrow, ‘The Undercliff’ cafe at Ovingdean, will be organising an Easter Egg hunt aimed at young children. All the proceeds of the egg hunt will go to charity.

Lukas said: “I used to come here as a kid, every few days, I went rock pooling. I used to get ice-crams. I have fished off the slip here regularly.” The slip is near Brighton marina.

“We’re trying to make it feel as if you’re on holiday down by the beach. The Mediterranean style, Mezze menu will encourage that.”

Lukas and his partner offer Mediterranean inspired cuisine because Lukas’ father, Zeki Atesli, is Turkish. The couple’s vision for the café is to be a community hub throughout the day and until sunset during the summer months when it’s lighter.

While travelling in South East Asia, the couple sampled Vietnamese salted iced coffee which they have tried to re-create. It’s their signature, iced coffee and consists of condensed milk, salted caramel, cream and coffee with a dash of salt.

At the Undercliff Café, you can order fresh fruit smoothies and Borek which is a Turkish filo pastry parcel with spinach and feta. There are vegetarian and vegan options as well as bacon butties and sausage rolls.

A Turkish inspired menu also boasts specialist beer, wine and cocktails. The couple now have a licence to serve alcohol in moderation and play recorded music until 10pm. This means customers can watch the sunset and enjoy some Mezze by the sea while listening to ambient music.

With a sun downer, you can order smoked almonds, olives, stuffed feta peppers and smoked paprika hummus with rosemary focaccia.

Lukas, ever the entrepreneur, said: “We’re planning to do paddle board rental in the summer from May or June when tides are less volatile and there’s consistently better weather.”

Bea wants to develop the charitable side of the business. She said: “We just want to use the café for good, I have made up 100 bags of dog treats and the money is going to Cancer research. I also made some homemade granola; I just want to do some good because we can sell things here.”

When The Deans GRAB Volunteers came to clean the beach at the Undercliff cafe, Bea offered free cake to everyone involved. She also gave free food to Pedal People who provide accessible cycle rides for elderly people living in care and all ages of people who have a disability or health need.

A donation of more than £1,000 was given by the Undercliff cafe to Rottingdean Heritage which runs the Grange and the Windmill.

Bea said: “Pedal Peeps are always welcome here for some free coffees. They’re amazing. I think they need more volunteers.

“I just want to help the local area. I definitely want to work with charities around here. We definitely want to do something with marine conservation.”

Lukas’ father, Zeki Atesli, who is an A&E Consultant, holds the lease for the building from Brighton Council. He encouraged the couple to buy a defibrillator for the Undercliff with the help of British Heart Foundation. BHF and Lukas’ father are both are training all of the staff at the café and members of the public in how to use it to save lives.

A family-run business, the cafe opened for the first time last May and reopened for the summer season two weeks ago. Four or five staff work in The Undercliff has public toilets next door.

Lukas and Bea said they will open every day of the year until December with a covered Pergola and heaters in case of bad weather, allowing customers to watch the stormy sea. During the Spring, they open from 9am until 5pm and in the summer they will stay open for longer, perhaps until it gets dark.

You can look up @The_Undercliff on Instagram. A Facebook page is coming soon and the team have a website.

There will be seven voting members, including the Sussex Mayor, on the devolved Sussex Mayoral Authority.  Six of these voting members will be elected from East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove. The Sussex Mayor is the seventh voting member, and they will have the casting vote.  Each member will have a vote. The default voting system is that a clear majority of four voting members will carry a change in policy or Sussex-wide legislation. Associate members like the Police and Crime Commissioner, the local NHS Trust Chief Executive or district council leaders can attend meetings, and they cannot vote.

Only Unitary Authorities like Brighton and Hove and County Councils will be represented on the devolved Mayoral Authority. By 2028, the whole of Sussex should be unitary authorities like Brighton and Hove which is better because a single authority runs all the council services in the area.

If the referendum is approved, the first mayoral elections will take place on 07 May 2026.

The Mayor will sit on the Council of Nations and Regions with the Prime Minister, the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. The mayor will also represent Sussex on the Mayoral Council with other countywide or metro Mayors like the Mayor of London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool and other northern regions.

The Independent Remuneration Panel will recommend allowances and the new authority would set its own allowances and agree the allowance of the Sussex Mayor.

Elections have been postponed in East and West Sussex from May 2025 to May 2026 in order to ensure that the Sussex Mayor and voting members can be elected at the same time. I do not think elections for the new unitary authorities will take place until 2027 and these councils will not begin to operate until 2028. It means there will be very little democratic accountability between May 2026 and May 2028. According to the Local Government Association, shadow elections might take place during this time and they will not be full elections.

This part of the process is not at all clear to me and is causing concern to Councils across East and West Sussex as well as Brighton and Hove. All three authorities of Brighton and Hove, East and West Sussex support devolution to bring greater investment and protection of Sussex’ natural resources into the area. All three authorities are consulting widely about the boundaries of the five new unitary authorities.

Green Party concerns in Lewes and East Sussex (click here)

Councillor Ezra Cohen from Lewes District Council and East Sussex County Council feels there are inadequate safeguards in place to protect democratic accountability, ‘enhance representation and restore trust’ in public services.

Lewes District Council would like to ensure that devolution is ‘truly a transfer of power to communities, not just a reshuffling of centralised authority.’

Four out of five of the District and Borough Council leaders in East Sussex feel lack of council elections ‘risks undermining the very principles of local democracy and public trust that the White Paper claims to champion.’

Mayoral campaigns can spend up to £140,000 which East Sussex County Council (ESCC) feels is too high and creates a financial barrier to democratic participation. The Sussex Mayor will be elected two years before the unitary authorities go live.

Mayoral elections will use the First Past the Post voting system, a Supplementary Vote system might be fairer according to East Sussex County Council (ESCC.)

Councillor Cohen is concerned that the Sussex Mayor will operate alone for two years without a directly elected assembly like the London Assembly. This means there will be no checks and balances to what the Sussex Mayor is doing.

West Sussex County Council is also very concerned about democratic accountability. Click on the link (in green) to read their concerns.

All of the Mayors’ Commissioners need to be elected, not appointed to protect local democratic oversight and accountability. I cannot find a clear answer to this question online at the moment. If you know, please drop me a comment.

There are no statutory duties to produce local climate and nature strategies alongside the Local Growth Plan and Spatial Development Strategy.

Police and Crime Commissioners need 100 signatures in support of their candidacy rather than £5,000 which is a stronger test and prevents economic discrimination.

Brighton and Hove would like to retain its distinctiveness

Brighton and Hove residents would like to remain as a discrete unit and unitary authority within existing boundaries to maintain the distinctiveness of the towns. However, we are well under the optimum size of a unitary authority which is 500,000.

Geographical boundaries

Alongside devolution and a Sussex Mayor, the government is asking for proposals for unitary councils in all parts of Sussex which are better because a single council runs all the services for the area. I think there should be four or five unitary authorities.

East Sussex has a population of 555,484 and wants to maintain its boundaries and maintain its existing partnerships which makes sense. West Sussex has a population of 900,862 which is almost double the optimum size of a unitary authority.

I think Crawley (with a population of 120,545) and Horsham (with a population of 149,464) and the rural areas in between should be another unitary authority focused around Gatwick airport and Three Bridges stretching Westwards.

Brighton and Hove with a population of 279,637 should merge with Mid Sussex to include Ditchling and Haywards Heath as far as the Southern side of Horsham or potentially also Westwards to encompass Adur and possibly Arun.

This would leave Worthing (with a population of 112, 240) and Chichester (with a population of 128,003) and Petersfield as the main towns in rural West Sussex.

Timetable

Spring 2025: Sussex-wide national devolution consultation run by the government.

Spring to summer 2025: Local consultations across Sussex run by local government.

End of September 2025: Councils to submit a detailed plan to ensure Sussex is economically viable, provide better public services for residents and show how community views have shaped the plan.

End of 2025 to early 2026: Ministers will consider proposals for the unitary authorities and begin implementing the proposals.

May 2026: Elections for the Sussex Mayor.

2027: Elections for the new unitary authorities.

2028: Unitary authorities are fully functioning and go live.

Sister Act pulsates with life, joy and celebration from the very first moment the curtain is drawn. Deloris Van Cartier, a singer in a nightclub, is in trouble and needs a place to hide from Curtis Jackson (Ian Gareth-Jones) who is the villain of the piece complete with three hilarious henchmen. Deloris finds herself, unexpectedly, in a convent (Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow) and makes the best of it. The show is about community and sisterhood, pulling together in the face of adversity and I think it’s one you must not miss.

With a fresh adaptation of the well-known film, this production of Sister Act has a different musical score and script. Songs are inspired by Motown, soul and disco; the musical is joyous and uplifting in equal measure. Choreography is complex and masterfully executed by Alistair David.

West End star Landi Oshinowo is magnificent as Deloris, confident, witty, warm, sparkling with humanity and honesty. She has an impressive musical range and commands all of the audience’s attention whenever she is on stage. She sings about sisterhood in the headline song, Sister Act and later, the whole company of nuns amplify her sound. She has starred as the Empress of China in Aladdin as well as Shrek the Musical and Britain’s Got Talent on TV among many other shows.

Kate Powell is hilarious as the Mother Superior, performing four songs and entreating her God in a deadpan manner to rescue the convent from the irresistible magnetism of Deloris. Sue Cleaver from Coronation Street will only play the role of Mother Superior in Sister Act from Thursday 14 to Saturday 16 March.

Alfie Parker is the slightly unprepossessing Policeman, Eddie Souther, who gives a stirling performance in Sister Act during his performance of ‘I could be that guy.’ Audiences always love an underdog, and he got one of the biggest cheers of the evening.

Eloise Runnette, who plays Sister Mary Robert, is painfully shy at first and finds her voice with the help of Deloris. She performs a beautiful solo in the second half called: ‘The Life I never Led.’ She is a very young when she joins the convent and can’t help but ask the question: is she missing out on what secular life has to offer?

Phillip Arran plays Monsignor O’Hara, the priest who will do anything to keep his Church open and fill its coffers.

Direction is excellent by Bill Buckhurst who manages a cast of 21 singers and dancers. He has previously directed Sweeney Todd and a whole host of Shakespearean plays and you can sense his wealth of experience.

Sister Act is produced by a team led by Jamie Wilson and the film star Whoopi Goldberg. Complete with an orchestra of eight, the show features original music by Tony®, 8-time Oscar® winner Alan Menken (of Disney’s Aladdin, Enchanted) and lyrics by Glenn Slater.

Costumes are breath-taking, designed by Morgan Large – think Freddie Mercury in a glittering final extravaganza.

An outstanding show, Sister Act warms the heart and lifts the soul. It invites us to embrace a world where good triumphs over evil, and the power of friendship makes the audience celebrate life in all its brilliant, dazzling exuberance.

This article was first published on Brighton Source, our going out Bible.

Hove residents voted in favour of the Hove Station Neighbourhood Plan for a new Hove Station Quarter by a margin of more than ten to one last night, Friday 10 February.

Mike Gibson said: “This decisive result gives the Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum a clear mandate to continue working with the local community to deliver the Neighbourhood Plan vision of a new Hove Station Quarter.

“The result entitles the community to benefit from local investment of developer contributions (s.106 and CIL) to deliver improvements in the neighbourhood environment.

“It strengthens the case for the delivery of community priorities including a higher level of affordable housing, street tree-planting and effective traffic management required by the continuing growth of our neighbourhood.”

Since voting ‘yes’ last night, the council will be legally required to allocate 25% of developer contributions (CIL) from these future projects to improve the area. Developer contributions will be invested in improvements to parks, pavements, roads, shopping areas etc. These contributions will run into hundreds of thousands of pounds in the next few years.

The Forum seeks to force concessions from the developers about, for example, the height of the new blocks in the new Hove Station Quarter. It also seeks to enforce the agreement with the council to ban parking permits for the new influx of tenants.

Hove Station Quarter referendum is the final stage in the approval of the developments. This plan has been prepared over eight years by the Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum. It’s an independent group of volunteer residents from across the political spectrum, whose purpose is to get the best for the area and the people who live there.

Councillor Trevor Muten said: “I am pleased to see so many local residents engaged with this democratic process with a clear majority of voters choosing to support the Hove Station Neighbourhood Plan in this local referendum.

“As a Goldsmid Ward councillor, I am very much looking forward to working alongside residents of the Hove Station neighbourhood to help deliver the Hove Station Neighbourhood Plan, an important integral part of wider plans for our city.”

Turnout was just over 15% and 1,348 residents voted ‘Yes’ yesterday to the development of the Hove Station Quarter, compared with 102 who voted ‘No.’

This article was first published by Brighton and Hove News.

A vital Hove Station referendum is being held today which will give Hove residents the chance to influence the development of new buildings and infrastructure in the area. Included in the plan are new flats proposed for three more prominent sites in the area. Hove residents need to vote YES  today to ensure their opinions are heard – and taken into account – by the developers and the council.

Vote YES in the Hove Station referendum to get funding for local infrastructure

Critically, by voting YES, the council will be legally required to allocate 25% of developer contributions (CIL) from these future projects to improve the area. Developer contributions will be invested in improvements to parks, pavements, roads, shopping areas etc. These contributions will run into hundreds of thousands of pounds in the next few years.

A neighbourhood plan written by the community for the community

Hove Station referendum is the final stage in the approval of the developments. This plan has been prepared over eight years by the Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum. It’s an independent group of volunteer residents, whose purpose is to get the best for the area and the people who live there.

While accepting that these new developments are inevitable, the Forum seeks to force concessions from the developers about, for example, the height of the new blocks. It also seeks to enforce the agreement with the council to ban parking permits for the new influx of tenants. Only with a majority YES vote on Feb 9th will this happen, so all residents are being encouraged to have their say today.

Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum chairman, Mike Gibson
said: “It really is vital that everyone gets out to vote YES in the Hove Station referendum. We’ve seen the current developments go up all around us, and I keep hearing people complain about the height of these buildings, concerns about parking, and the impact on local amenities. With an approved Plan, this time we can make a real difference to future projects. But only if a majority of residents vote “YES”.

David Kemp is the principal of DK Architects Ltd which is based in the parade of shops at 9 Hove Park Villas.

Mr Kemp was born in Hove and has lived in this part of the City for most of his life including attending the Architecture School at Brighton Polytechnic which is now a University. He is married with two children.  Mr Kemp sees that Hove should have a centre of distinctive character with more facilities of its own reducing the reliance on Brighton. The area around Hove Station is a natural, central position for steady and managed change which would inevitably include residential development and needs to be of a high standard.

Mr Kemp said: ‘Let’s not miss this opportunity.’

Volunteers working for the benefit of the community

When news broke about the closure of the Royal Mail facility in Denmark Villas, the Neighbourhood Forum established a dialogue with the Royal Mail about the site development, and made it clear that the local community:

• would not support high-rise above nine storeys
• would press for the provision of social rented housing
• wanted a virtually car-free development
• wanted significant and accessible green landscaping

However, none of these essential points can be enforced without a majority YES in the Hove Station referendum.

Brighton & Hove Council has recently established a joint working group with Conway Street landowners, the Bus Company and Network Rail, to design the new developments intended for the bus station area and to improve the footbridge.

A majority YES vote at the Hove Station referendum will give us community representation in this group.

In relation to GPs surgeries and schools which are outside the scope of the Neighbourhood Plan, Mr Gibson wrote this:

Forum Chair Mike Gibson said: “This is the best ever chance we’ll get to have a say in how our neighbourhood is developed. We can’t afford to miss out.”

A yes vote in this Hove Station referendum is the result of eight years of painstaking work by volunteer residents from all political parties. The Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum welcomes all new members, and subscribers; and encourages everyone in the Neighbourhood Plan area to get involved in future campaigns, such as traffic management, street tree planting, etc. For further information, visit www.HoveStationForum.co.uk.

A fire was started on the footbridge at Hove Station – a second incident of anti-social behaviour in just over a week.

The small fire was reported to train operator Southern, part of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs the station, at about 5.30am on Tuesday (15 August).

The company said that East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service put out the fire within minutes of arriving.

The operation of the station and train services were unaffected.

A Southern staff member, who opened up Hove Station at 3am, said that the fire started out of sight of the security cameras on the footbridge between 2am and 5am.

She said that the station just smelt of smoke and that it could be smelt from the bottom of the road by the top of George Street.

The fire is the second incident of anti-social behaviour in 10 days. Some magazines in two boxes and some comics were stolen from the Hove Station newsagent. The owner dismissed it as a late-night prank.

GTR’s safety, health and security director Samantha Facey said: “Incidents of anti-social behaviour have been more common across the county since the start of school summer holidays.

“Our teams of ‘travel safe officers’ and ‘rail enforcement officers’ continue to support the efforts of our policing partners, schools and social services as we work together to tackle this issue.”

Southern said that Hove Station did not have a high incidence of anti-social behaviour compared with other stations along the coast.

Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum has been campaigning for security cameras to be fitted on the footbridge next to Hove Station for several years now.

And last year Brighton and Hove Council allocated £500,000 over two years to repair the footbridge and make it safer, with the money due to be spent in the current financial year and next year, 2024-25.

But little if any work appears to have been carried out and the footbridge remains in need of urgent refurbishment.

Mike Gibson, who chairs the Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum, said that security cameras should be linked to the existing CCTV (closed-circuit television) in the station and monitored by station staff.

Southern said: “We will always welcome practical proposals to improve safety and security around our stations for local communities, our passengers and colleagues.”

The latest incidents come as a consultation takes place about a plan to close all railway ticket offices across the country, not just Hove Station.

Train operators have said that they want to move staff out of ticket offices and on to station concourses because most people now buy their tickets from a machine or purchase e-tickets online digitally.

After a public outcry, the consultation has been extended until Friday 1 September to give more passengers the opportunity to make their views heard.

Concerns are greatest among disabled and elderly passengers – some of whom struggle to use the machines.

Others find the fare structure complex and prefer to buy tickets from a staff member to ensure that they buy the cheapest ticket.

Sanja Bignall, from Hove, said: “I can use my phone to buy a ticket but a lot of elderly people don’t have smartphones and they don’t necessarily know how to work machines.

“It’s nice to have a chat. The lady here (at Hove Station – Amanda) is lovely. I think people have forgotten how important it is to have human contact.

“At Shoreham, there is a bank of machines. They had to employ people to run between them. It’s just horrible. That’s the future.

“The foot traffic in Hove is going to increase with all those people moving in (to the new high-rise buildings under construction currently.) You’d think they would keep the ticket office.”

When GTR started the public consultation, the company said: “It’s important to say that no stations that have staff today would become unstaffed and all the accessibility assistance we provide to today would remain.

“The aspiration is that ticket office colleagues would have broader roles in the future, helping with many different types of customer service and offering a more diverse, interesting role for our people.

“These proposals are being made because the way customers buy tickets has significantly changed in recent years. We want to adapt how we sell them to modernise and improve customer service.

“Most tickets are now bought online or from ticket machines. In fact, 9 out of 10 are now bought away from traditional ticket office windows.

“Staff would still be available to help customers buy tickets and find the best value fares.

“In-person assistance would still be available to support customers purchasing from ticket machines and to support the safety and security of stations, for example, by being a presence to deter anti-social behaviour.

“Additionally, it is proposed that 18 of GTR’s largest and busiest stations will have the ability to open their ticket offices to retail specialist tickets.”

Under the new proposals, ticket assistance would be offered at Hove Station from 6am until 11pm on weekdays and Saturdays and from 7.30am until 11.30pm on Sundays.

GTR said: “It’s key to stress that no final decisions have been made though. The public consultation has been launched (and now extended to Friday 1 September) so the industry can get everyone’s views first. We really want to hear from as many people as possible.”

To respond online to the consultation, click here.

Printed copies of the consultation can be requested at staffed stations and alternative formats are available by calling 0345 026 4700 or textphone 0800 138 1018.

Roz Scott is a freelance journalist based in Sussex. You can subscribe to her blog at www.rozscott.com.

This article was first published by Brighton and Hove News.

Last weekend more than 40,000 people flocked to Oaklands Farm in Hampshire to hear their spiritual leader speak at an annual Muslim festival of prayer and food. The motto of the community is ‘love for all, hatred for none.’

The international festival of the Ahmadiyya Community, called the ‘Jalsa Salana’ is held every year in Alton on a 210-acre site in Hampshire. Delegates travel from every corner of the globe to get there including Asia, Africa, the Pacific Isles, North and South America, Canada and Oman.

Rafiq Hayat said the festival helped to “remind people that it is their duty as Muslims to be loyal, peaceful and dutiful citizens, to protect others and be of service to humanity.” Mr Hayat is the national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association in the UK.

The Caliph, Hazrat Mizra Masroor Ahmad, warned world leaders, in a keynote speech, that the Ukraine war could spread. He advised the international community not to try to “humiliate the aggressor” by punishing Russia in a way that might feed further conflict.

He was speaking to 41,654 Muslims from the Ahmadiyya Community who came together for their annual festival.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for South Asia, said that the Koran teaches Muslims not to “let the enmity of any nation or party prevent you from upholding the true standards of justice.”

He said of the Ukraine conflict: “There are genuine concerns that the Ukraine conflict could spread or that other nations could be emboldened to abandon diplomatic efforts to resolve their disputes and resort to force.”

On Friday 28 July, the Caliph, who is the community’s spiritual leader hoisted their flag alongside the Union Jack held by Mr Hayat. On Sunday, Ahmadi Muslims pledged their allegiance to their leader and to their teachings of Islam.

More than 7000 volunteers made the annual Muslim festival a success, serving 270,000 meals – lentil-based dahl for lunch and lamb and potatoes for dinner. Volunteers made 9,000 rotis an hour in the on-site bread factory, starting at 3am.

There are 30,000 Ahmadi Muslims in the UK and 10-20 million spread across the world, many in Africa. The Ahmadiyya Community is a minority sect of Islam that is outlawed in Pakistan because Ahmadis do not believe that Muhammed was the final Muslim prophet. It’s a claim that some Sunni and Shia Muslims consider to be blasphemous.

Hailey Rose is the Youth Chief from the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations in Saskatchewan Canada. Describing her experience of the annual Muslim festival, she said: “I feel the energy, it’s an awakening, it woke me up, I feel a sense of belonging, the community, the people are very loving and welcoming, kind-hearted. They take good care of us.

“You feel like family. Everyone just wants to feel like they belong. When we were up on stage it was very empowering and uplifting to see how the men treat the women. Women have very high status.”

Ahmadiyya Muslims follow the same holy texts as Sunni and Shia Muslims, but believe that the messiah promised in Islam has already arrived, believing it to be Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who was born in 1835 in Qadian in India. He is revered as a prophet by Ahmadiyya Muslims while Sunni and Shia Muslims hold Muhammad to be the last prophet.

Farooq Dean is an A&E doctor working in the UK. He went to Turkey in February to offer assistance after the earthquake with the non-governmental organization, Humanity First. Its mission is: ‘to serve disaster struck and socially disadvantaged individuals and families in the poorer communities of the world.’

Dr Dean, who is a registrar, said: “The destruction was unimaginable and we were providing primary care. We offered an initial response to the disaster. First, we provided aid to Syria. There were a few channels open to get aid over the border.”

Amjad Mahmood Khan, a Californian corporate lawyer based in LA and a Law Professor at the University of California (UCLA), said compassion is in the DNA of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which is my experience as a guest  journalist whenever I meet them.

Mahboob Ur Rehman is a structural engineer and general secretary of the International Association of Ahmadi Architects and Engineers for Europe (IAAAE) set up in 1980 to connect poorer countries to the rest of the world. He was inspired by the Caliph at the annual Muslim festival to use his skills help the poor overseas.

It costs £75,000 to transform a village in Africa, installing water systems, solar pumps, building a medical clinic, a school and houses. The first pilot village was in Burkina Faso, they have now brought water and, where possible, electricity to 37 villages in 15 countries across Africa, including Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Benin, Tanzania, Uganda and the island of Mayotte off the coast of Mozambique.

Most Ahmadis do not claim expenses when they travel to other countries to share their expertise because they are highly skilled and successful people. They live in tents, ensuring the overheads are low and the project is completed at cost. They train people on the ground to maintain the infrastructure and during the pandemic, they used YouTube to support them. Since then, this sustainable development work has accelerated.

The Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continually urges the West not to overlook the searing poverty of developing countries who have battled famine, drought, floods, and sometimes armed conflict, for centuries. At the peace symposium in 2018, he said: “People living in the world’s poorest nations do not concern themselves with the environment, or the latest figures on carbon emissions; rather they wake up each day wondering if they will be able to feed their children…

“We must not consider such hardship as other people’s problems. Instead, we must realise that the result of such poverty has severe implications for the wider-world and directly affects global peace and security.” Ahmadi Muslims, the Caliph said, need to leave behind, “a legacy of opportunity” for future generations.

“By helping the developing nations stand on their own feet, and by giving their people opportunities and hope, we will actually be helping ourselves and safeguarding the future of the world.”

When asked about climate change by students in Indonesia in 2021, the Caliph said we need to plant two trees for every one we cut down because of population growth that is fueling deforestation across the developing world.

In his speech in 2018, he asked: “Is there anyone who thinks that heavy bombardment has no effect on the atmosphere?

“Furthermore, if peace ever does prevail in the war-torn countries, their towns and cities will have to be rebuilt from scratch, and this, in itself, will be a huge industry that will cause an increase in harmful emissions and pollution. Thus, on the one hand, we are trying to save the planet, yet with our other hand, we are senselessly destroying it.”

With thanks to Kaya Burgess, Science Reporter and Religious Affairs Correspondent at the Times and Sunday Times who supplied a significant amount of the content.

Sussex Defend the NHS held a street party outside the ONCA gallery where the quilts are on display yesterday, 05 July to celebrate the 75^th birthday of the NHS and NHS staff.

Speaking to Dr Rob Galloway who is an A&E consultant, he said the new build at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton will make a “massive difference.”

He has also developed a hybrid digital workforce planning approach to help with staffing which has been commended by the Care Quality Commission. It’s a hybrid consultant rota which met the Royal College staffing guidelines for emergency medicine and could usefully be adapted and rolled out across the Trust. It means there are no gaps in staffing in A&E medical wards which is a real achievement.

Asked about particular pressures on the A&E department, he said the main problem is social care. Patients can’t get to hospital when they need to and discharge to social care is far too slow.

He also said patients are waiting 12 to 20 days for mental health beds and end up waiting days in A&E. There are enough A&E beds but not enough mental health beds.

Dr Galloway then addressed supporters and said: “I’m an A&E consultant and have worked in Brighton since 2001. It’s not an easy job, but it is one I’m very proud to do.

“Your quilts represent what is so important about the NHS and I see it every day in the work my colleagues (NHS staff) and I do – treating people based on need and not profit.

“I look after a dustman with a broken leg from a worksite injury, in the same way I look after a banker with liver damage from excessive caviar and champagne.

“Despite what is happening, the NHS is the greatest and best value for money insurance policy we have – if we or our loved ones get ill, then we just need to work on getting better and not becoming bankrupt.

“But it is under threat. And it’s at risk like never before. Waiting lists for operations are at their highest levels ever, longer and long waits for beds after being seen in A&E and for the first time since the NHS was formed, life expectancy is starting to fall.

“It can and it must survive and that’s why what you do is so important to fight for its survival.

“In July 1948, every household received a letter to explain the creation of the NHS… You are all paying for it, mainly as tax payers and it will relieve your money worries in times of illness.

“The nation rejoiced as the realisation hit and it became apparent that people should no longer die ever again because of their lack of wealth.

Reflecting on the beginning of the NHS, he said: “On 5 July 1948, the keys to Park Hospital in Trafford, Manchester were symbolically handed over to Nye Bevan who took them on behalf of the country…

“The first patient through the doors was a 13 year-old girl name Sylvia Beckingham, who was admitted for a serious liver condition.

“She came from a working-class background and her family could not afford the care she needed.

“Without the NHS, she would have died.

“With it, she survived and went on to live a fulfilling life as a teacher, Mum and by all accounts an amazing piano player.

“She epitomises the NHS’ long and great history.

Dr Galloway said there is reason to hope: “In the last 75 years, infant mortality has fallen from 36 per 1000 births to less than four. Life expectancy has grown for men from 65 to 80 and for women from 70 to 84… (although it has fallen in the last two years.)

“But the way NHS staff deliver care has changed. When the NHS was set up there were 480,000 beds, now there are 120,000. The NHS is there to treat illness.

Explaining how the NHS has changed focus, he said: “In the past it was “fast things” which killed us and which the NHS was there for – trauma and infection.

“But now it’s slower less obvious causes such as neurodegenerative disease, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic causes such as type two diabetes.

“Much more care, rightly, is done in the community by GPs including care of the elderly: doctors leading the way and preventative medicine and encouragement of public health initiatives (are) rightly becoming more important.

“So as illnesses change, the way in which the NHS works must change.

“Although things have been far from perfect in the NHS, it has always been resilient to the pressures thrown upon it. Now it needs that more than ever.

He said its staff are the backbone of the NHS: “But one thing which is no different is the dedication and devotion of the staff who work in the NHS. The NHS is not its buildings, its drugs or its machines. It’s NHS staff. They work for an institution whose ethos puts patients above all else.

“An institution which leads the world in research, cutting edge care but most importantly humanity.

“But it’s not a given that the NHS is here to stay. It does not have the universal support it had 13 years ago and it’s not cheap.

“It is money well spent, the ethos of doing what’s right for patients rather than profits means tests are arranged when they will change (medical) management, rather than where they allow profits to be maximised.

“This means it’s the most efficient health system in the world – even though it doesn’t feel like that at times. But that efficiency is being damaged by current political direction – you only have to look at what happened when the private sector got involved in PPE and track and trace.

“Yes, it needs reform, but in a way which encapsulates all it stands for. It also needs support and love.

“We need to support it as a best friend would do – with honest and reflective love and not unfettered adulation. Because only then can it reform and grow in the way our nation truly needs it to.

“It’s at risk like never before.

He described morale coming out of the pandemic: “NHS staff are demoralised and struggling. Claps on a Thursday and lights shining on buildings today, can’t stop the brain drain of expertise we are seeing.

“I manage major trauma in my day job. Giving blood is often needed to keep the patient alive. But to save a life, you need to stop the bleeding.

“NHS Workforce management is the same as trauma management.

“There is a real risk that the actual beneficiaries of the new NHS England workforce plan and investment will be the Australian health service.

“The NHS is nothing without NHS staff.

“I know so many doctors, nurses and others who are burnt out and do not think working in the NHS is worth it anymore. The long-term damage to patient care from this is enormous.

Dr Galloway criticised successive governments for under-investment that has resulted in the brain-drain: “The NHS is a brilliant concept which is being utterly mismanaged by our politicians.

“Those of us who work and use and need the NHS are being let down by our political leaders.

“We need new ideas, policies, workforce plans and funding to save the NHS before it’s too late.

“Our NHS, which was formed by heroes of World War Two, may not be there for our children.

“As Nye Bevan said, the NHS will survive as long as there are the folk with the faith to fight for it.

“We will fight it. We have to fight it. We have to be the folk, we have to have the faith and we must fight it.

Otherwise, our children will never forgive us.”

A summary of my three NHS articles to celebrate the 75th birthday of the NHS has been published by Sussex Bylines.

Two handcrafted quilts go on show today, Saturday 01 July, at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church to celebrate 75 years of the NHS. Supporters came together at 11am to admire the handiwork of 27 people aged from 11 to 82 who sewed the quilts.

On Saturday, the ‘Threads of Survival’ exhibition will be open at the church until 4pm and will run to Monday, 3 July when it closes at 3pm. It will then move to the ONCA gallery near the hospital. (Details below.)

Charlotte Stevens who is a professional quilter, advised on the structural side of how to join the pieces together. She said: “It’s been a wonderful, collective thing to have the chance to work with the group.” Some people who are passionate about the NHS, she said, wouldn’t go on a march but they were keen to sew a piece of the quilt.  There is a history of collective quilting dating back to the AIDS campaign in the 1980s, Charlotte explained.

Mike Aiken is an activist from Sussex Defend the NHS. He said as the NHS approaches its birthday next week, it’s important to do more to raise awareness and find ways for people to get involved. He said: “I think we all forget about the NHS until we are ill and then we find bits of it aren’t there anymore.”

Madeleine Dickens from Sussex Defend the NHS, who organised the event, said the exhibition of the quilts is about celebrating the NHS because the government is driving it into the ground. She said: “The NHS saves thousands of lives every day and undertakes hundreds of thousands of treatments but it’s in a state of disintegration. We need to acknowledge the NHS. Many more people need to become aware of what’s happening and sign the scroll.”

Madeleine also paid tribute to Steve Carne who died earlier this year. He was a very active NHS campaigner and a friend to many in Brighton and Hove. There is a piece of the quilt adorned with a yellow boa in memory of Steve.

The Ukrainian Voices Choir from Brighton entertained us by singing some traditional, Ukrainian songs. Most of the singers are refugees who came to Brighton a year ago after the war broke out. Iryna and Kira were manning a stand where people can buy Ukrainian souvenirs and make a donation. They sang their last song called ‘The hope is here’ in Ukrainian and English.  They sang: “Hope is a powerful force that never fades away.”

Louise Bray-Allen who is a Community Mental Health nurse spoke at the exhibition of the quilts about the importance of the NHS. Catching up with me beforehand, she said you can monetise a hip replacement and asked, how can you monetise mental health?

In her speech, she said: “I’ve seen a lot of changes, a lot of reorganisations over the years but the NHS has taken a phenomenal hammering under the Covid 19 pandemic tragedy. I fear for its future and fear that it won’t reach its 75^th birthday without it being effectively privatised by stealth by this brutal government.

“Back in the good old days when a patient needed a hospital bed, a local bed was always found. Now many patients have to be accommodated out of area (mostly in private facilities – at considerable expense.) But more importantly – increasing the distress for that patient – as they are located far from home without any chance of visitors.

“Hospital bed number have been absolutely decimated! The years of Tory austerity plus the ravages of Covid have made this situation much, much worse. Nursing staff are thoroughly demoralised at not being able to provide the quality care we have been trained to deliver. Vacancies are at an all-time high. Where are the next up and coming generation of nurses going to come from? The Tories took the bursaries away and plunged student nurses into huge debt…

“And what about social care? This still hasn’t been addressed at all… So, the NHS has to provide the safety net for these people at the detriment of care being focused elsewhere in the system.

“The latest insulting pay rise? It’s effectively a pay cut. I certainly didn’t go into nursing to earn a huge salary, but I did naively expect my wages to go up occasionally! People say nursing is a “vocation” but try telling that to the bank manager when the overdraft limit is reached every month… And now some nurses have been forced to use food banks which I find utterly shocking and completely unacceptable.

“This brutal government has taken full advantage of the Covid 19 crisis to slyly give contracts to their friends in the private sector, hoping that people won’t notice, well we have, haven’t we?

“We must resist all attempts at privatisation by stealth.

“We must stand together in our unions and local communities, and together we must fight for a decent, well-funded and resourced NHS free at the point or delivery for all. The rich must pay their taxes and that money must be channelled into the NHS.

“I will not be a nurse for a private company – I will not be wearing a red virgin healthcare uniform. I would rather be unemployed than work for a private healthcare provider.

“How can you make a profit out of somebody’s psychological pain? How can you make a profit out of someone suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar?

“The NHS is not dead yet! We must do everything we can to stop the Tories forcing us to have an American two-tier service. We must reject the Tory propaganda that the NHS is broken and needs privatisation. It’s not broken, just under-funded.

“I want to work for a properly funded NHS that does not sell our personal, confidential, medical data to private companies and that upholds the values that Nye Bevan so eloquently expressed in 1948:

“’The NHS will last as long as there are fold left with the faith to fight for it.’ There is fantastic work going on in the NHS. There is the love for the NHS visually represented in these amazing quilts. Let us all keep the faith, join together and fight to cherish and save our NHS.

“I give hope out every day of my working life. There is hope.”

On 5 July, the Threads of Survival group will be celebrating the NHS birthday with Sussex Defend the NHS. Professor Rob Galloway, an A&E consultant and medical advisor to the NHS Support Federation will be speaking at 10 30am outside the ONCA gallery. The quilts will be displayed in the ONCA Gallery Window, 14 St George’s Place, Brighton BN1 4GB from Wednesday 05 July (NHS birthday) to Monday, 10 July.

Residents of Brighton and Hove aged from 11 to 82 have been inspired to take up their needles to join the ‘Threads of Survival’ project, to make two quilts one celebrating and one highlighting the dangers faced by the NHS as she turns 75 years old on 5 July.

Brighton and Hove Threads of Survival is part of a national campaign which started during lockdown. The Brighton and Hove quilts are the most recent of 30 quilts made by

communities in locations across the country. All of the quilts represent the coming together of people from a range of communities to support the NHS and NHS workers.

Brighton and Hove Scroll of Support for the NHS which is over 120 metres long has eloquent and moving messages from more than 3,000 people and will be displayed alongside the quilts.

Louise Bray Allen, a community mental health nurse, will open the ‘Threads of Survival’ exhibition at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church, Dorset Gardens, Brighton BN2 1SA at 11am, accompanied by Ukrainian Voices women’s choir. The exhibition will be open until 4pm on Saturday 1 July to Monday, 3 July when it closes at 3pm.

On 5 July, the Threads of Survival group will be celebrating the NHS birthday with Sussex Defend the NHS. Professor Rob Galloway, an A&E consultant and medical advisor to the NHS Support Federation will be speaking at 10 30am outside the ONCA gallery. The quilts will be displayed in the ONCA Gallery Window, 14 St George’s Place, Brighton BN1 4GB from Wednesday 05 July (NHS birthday) to Monday, 10 July.

There will be a stall outside the gallery all day with opportunities to sign NHS birthday cards, add personal messages to the NHS Scroll and of course eat some cake.

Many of the squares movingly express individuals’ appreciation of the NHS and NHS workers: “The NHS saved my life”. “Born in hospital, bones mended, life saved”, “Migrants make the NHS”.

Others highlight the current threats to the NHS from cuts in funding, extensive privatisation, the systemic undervaluing of NHS workers, chronic understaffing, and crises in availability of services for e.g. “Covid Aftermath”, “Claps don’t pay the bills”, “Healthcare not Wealthcare”, NHS SOS, the massive waiting lists for children and adults waiting for mental health treatment and many more.

Sean de Podesta, from Sussex Defend the NHS, who inspired the NHS Scroll said: “Since 2018 I have been going around the city listening to people’s experiences of the NHS. I know how precious it is to so many people. The Threads of Survival Exhibitions are an opportunity for people to see something beautiful, to reflect on what the NHS means to them, and what we need to do to ensure its survival.”

Madeleine Dickens from the Threads of Survival project said: “We urge everyone to come along to see the inspirational quilts and scroll and to join in the events. As the quilts and the scroll graphically show, so many people are deeply concerned about the dismantling of the NHS and what is being inflicted on the NHS and NHS workers.”

This article was published by Brighton and Hove News on Saturday 01 July.

John Parvin and Aidan Bowen met at school in Brighton. In 1992 they set up an independent tech firm selling Apple products. In 2015, they came up with the concept Vrroom which is a virtual race room. Three weeks ago they opened their doors at Brighton Marina and have already had hundreds of people through the door. They bring semi-professional level driver training equipment that’s affordable to the citizens of Brighton and Hove and beyond.

Mr Parvin said: “This is not an arcade.” They have 46 professional racing tracks from around the world such as Silverstone, Monza, Spa, Barcelona and Redbull Ring. Last week they featured the Barcelona track to coincide with the Grand Prix taking place there.

When asked why Vrroom was unique, Mr Parvin said they have the best equipment and the best environment to showcase it. Many in the industry feel that sim racing helps them once they enter the real tracks.

Current F1 World Champion Max Verstappen competes in sim racing and many in the industry feel that sim racing helps them once they enter the real tracks. This is semi-professional driving training rather than an arcade game and can be used for a training ground as a transition into real racing.

He said there is a similar venue near St Paul’s in London but it’s an arcade. He explained the difference: “In an arcade, you drive against the computer. All the other cars are driven by a computer. We are fundamentally different from an arcade.

“Here (at Vrroom), you drive against real people. People don’t come to race, they come to set the fastest lap which is a time attack… We don’t try to make it easy, we try to make it real. It’s very hard to start with. In the game, they are telling you, you are brilliant. In the game, you start at the back and finish first. At Vrroom, if you start at the back, you usually finish at the back.”

I drove a Fiat 595 which is a racing version of a Fiat 500 on the Vallelunga track in Rome. The first lap was all about learning to steer a very light wheel and navigate the bends in the track. I got the hang of it after a few laps and then Mr Parvin joined me on the track.

The track is scanned using lasers and helps racing drivers prepare for races and get them used to both the track and the car they are driving. Mr Parvin said: “Vrroom is affordable and your life is not in danger.”

Accessibility to motorsport is only available to those people who have multi million pound parents who can afford it. It is a minimum £35K year to race in motorsport. However, virtual motorsport is accessible to anyone. It breaks down all these barriers and makes the enjoyment of this sport accessible to anyone. In excess of 100,000 play every minute of every day.

Brighton Marina Vrroom is one of its kind. Drivers can experience a huge variety of cars such as Mazda MX5 to F1 F2, F3 and F4, single seater F1 cars to endurance sports cars such as Porsche,Lambo, Mercedes benz, & McClaren.

The simulators have forged carbon fibre gears, pro esport pedals, a motion platform and the expression on the screen is 55’display offering 180-degree display of visual immersion.

It is also a great training ground for young adults wanting to learn to drive.

Tickets cost £18.50 for 20 minutes driving in a simulator from www.vrroom.com. You can race with 12 other people at the same time in 12 simulators on a variety of tracks and there is coffee and a fully licensed bar to relax in after the event. You can follow Vrroom on Instagram and Facebook.

Vrroom is not recommended for children under 12 years old because the driving is challenging they might not be able to reach the pedals.

You can follow Vrroom on Instagram: @Vroom_Brighton or Facebook at Vrroom virtual race room.

Jenny Foulds has ADHD. She describes her brain as a messy bedroom. Clothes strewn all over the floor, she thinks she knows where everything is or does she? A ray of sunlight falls on the floor and for a fleeting moment, everything is in place.

Watching Jenny Fould’s play, Life Learnings of a Nonsensical Human, reminded me that life is for living. It is an, ode to joy and the complexities of friendship, queerness and raving. With great warmth Jenny looks back on her adolescence and early adulthood and explains how she came out. She remembers fondly conversations that about life, the world and the universe that you can only have at dawn after a heavy night.

She brings to life stories of sex, drugs and rock and roll with a lot of humour, tinged with sadness. She describes London as “Peter Pan land.” She says her family are “big characters with occasional loose morals.”

When calamity strikes, she tries to befriend grief who silently watches her like a new friend. She describes herself as “un-get-able, I am a missing person… You are a message in a bottle trying to reach me.”

Jenny wants to invent a joy machine. Her play contains spoken word poetry and this ode is, to the kindness of strangers, to the heartbreak of loss and missing and finding joy in the most unlikely places. These poems are for old ravers and fun makers, for anyone who has had a best friend. This is a love letter to the sticky floors that we have danced on for all these years.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jenny Fould’s performance. She took me back to a 72 hour party I hosted with friends at University. Happy days. You can’t bottle joy and preserve it but you can be attentive to it, you can befriend it and savour it every time you glimpse it, fully alive, immersed in the moment.

Writer and performer Jenny Foulds says: “Life Learnings of a Nonsensical Human is an autobiographical adventure through my brain. My life so far. I once had a dream that I invented a machine that could find the joy in anything and the stories I tell all have an element of that through them.

“I started writing it long before my dad died last year and so the trajectory of it changed somewhat but even through grief, in the darkest moments so far, I managed to find joy in the most unlikely places and that’s what the show is about. I hope audiences can come and find some joy with me, whatever they are going through.”

Jenny Foulds (she/her) is a queer neurodiverse performance poet,writer and actress from Scotland. Jenny was the 2021 Scottish Poetry Slam Champion and was a finalist in the World Slam Championships in 2022, as well as being host and curator of the Brighton based spoken word night Rebel Soapbox.

As an actress Jenny Foulds was a series regular in Two Thousand Acres of Sky (BBC) and appeared in various TV and film roles including Rebus, Mandancin’, Taggart and The Debt Collector. She founded the street art blog Happy Graffiti, which later became a book published by Octopus Books in 2013. Life Learnings of a Nonsensical Human is her first solo show. Direction was excellent by Laura Mugridge.

You can follow Jenny Foulds on Twitter: @jennywithwords. Her show runs tonight, 25 May and 31 May at the Brunswick at 7pm before going to Edinburgh Festival. Don’t miss it.

Four stars ****

Bronte is a compelling play about the Bronte family – Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Bramwell, son of clergyman, Patrick Bronte. It’s about writing and why it matters, set between 1825 and 1855. The director, Nettie Sheridan, said: there are some difficult themes: “violence, sexual aggression, death, mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse.” Sheridan writes: “It has always been a mystery that these celibate, Victorian women, living in virtual isolation on the Yorkshire Moors, came to write some of the most passionate (even erotic) fiction of all time.”

For those of you who enjoyed reading Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, this play is a must see as the characters slip in and out of their novels. Three spinsters live with their elderly father in the Parsonage at Haworth, they appear self-contained and self-sufficient.

However, in each of them, hidden well beneath the surface, lies a tormented soul. Charlotte may be repressed. Emily is a free spirit and Anne takes longer to find her voice as the youngest child. Each of them writes about mental illness and the dark night of the soul with a perception that is ahead of their time and hardly based on their sheltered experience.

Bramwell, their wayward brother, might be the explanation. He is lost, bowed down by expectations as the only son, he is the only member of the family who glimpses freedom. Joseph Bentley plays this character with alacrity and he is responsible for most of the conflict in the play. Sibling rivalry, jealousy bordering on cruelty comes to a head during the play’s dramatic climax in the second half and it is unexpected. Bentley is a seasoned performer in the Brighton Little Theatre company with 24 shows under his belt. He has recently started directing productions.

Joanna Ackroyd acts as Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre. She has television credits and acted as mother in The Railway Children last summer for Brighton Little Theatre. Polly Jones brings her own approach to the character of Emily Bronte and Nelly Dean. She is very private, for her writing is catharsis. She does not seek acclaim and when Charlotte finds and reads some of her poetry, it feels like a betrayal. She is unaware of her own genius.

Lois Regan plays Anne Bronte who wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which is a radical, revolutionary work and has been described as the first fully formed feminist novel, ahead of its time. Ella Jay Morley haunts the stage as Cathy and Bertha. She is enigmatic in her first production at Brighton Fringe.

Steven Adams is the long-suffering father of the Bronte siblings who quietly guides, comforts and prays for his outstanding offspring. Steven is very funny as Curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls.

You do not need to have read the Bronte’s prose or poetry to enjoy the play, although some familiarity with their work will add depth to the experience. The script, written by Polly Teale, is very well-crafted, if a little slow to start. It is excellent that Teale weaves the three great novels into the play with ease and accuracy in a true celebration of the Bronte literature. Direction by Nettie Sheridan is very good. The set is also interesting with feathers littering the stage, designed by Steven Adams.

I think this is an outstanding play that makes you dig deep into the depths of human experience and shows the power of writing and art to inspire, escape and comfort. At times, teetering on the edge of insanity, the Bronte sisters write erotically about the passions that make us human and how to manage them. The play has inspired me to read the Brontës’ timeless literature again and immerse myself in the ever-changing moods of the Yorkshire Moors. Do not miss this compelling production at Brighton Little Theatre.

Five stars *****

At 11:30am yesterday morning, Saturday 20 May 2023, hundreds of paddle boarders from Surfers against Sewage and Brighton Explorers Club gathered to protest about sewage discharges into the sea.

Campaign manager from Surfers Against Sewage, Izzy Ross, said: “I am sick of water pollution. Water companies pumped sewage into the sea 400,000 times in the last year which is 820 times per day and 16,000 times in Brighton and Hove. They have failed to improve the sewage infrastructure, shareholders are swimming in millions while we are swimming in sewage. We are sick of sewage. We won’t stand for it anymore.”

Stuart Davies from Surfers against Sewage organised the event in Brighton which is part of a national day of protest against sewage. He said: “We want an end to sewage discharge by 2030 in bathing waters and a cap on CEO bonuses until this is sorted. The Government needs strong and effective regulation. There were two sewage discharges last week. People are angry and they have had enough.

Stuart said: “It will cost the water companies, including Southern Water, £10 billion to fix the problem and consumers will have to pay for it. We need a central, coordinated plan from the water companies. Last year there was a sewage discharge more than once per week in Brighton and Hove. What we are seeing is too little, too late.”

Kat runs a charity for young people called ‘Esteem.’ She said: “Young people are going to inherit the planet. We have a responsibility to leave it sustainable for the next generation. We are nature, everything we are doing that harms the planet, is harming ourselves.”

Oliver Heath who is a surfer said: “I am a Brighton resident and long-time user of the sea where I scuba dive under the pier. I spent my life swimming in the sea without getting sick. It’s disgusting that people have been profiting from the natural resource by polluting it.”

Katie Wootton from Canada who works in a local surf shop said: “I love the sea and I want it to be taken care of for us, for children, for kitties and puppies.”

Co-organiser of Surfers against Sewage, Annabel said: “I am a swimmer and people are getting sick because of the sewage.”

Stuart said stopping all sewage discharges by 2030 was a realistic goal.

Nick Mills, Head of Southern Water’s Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force, said: “We have already made significant investment in Brighton and have made a major reduction in spills as a result of our seven-mile super sewer lying under the chalk cliffs of Brighton which transfers waste and storm water to our new Peacehaven treatment works, one of the largest and most modern wastewater treatment works in Europe. This massive infrastructure project ensures that the 95 million litres of wastewater on average per day generated from Brighton and the surrounding areas is fully treated.”

According to Southern Water: “Hidden beneath the chalk cliffs between Peacehaven and Brighton lie gigantic 150 million litre storm tunnels that can hold a full day’s long term average rain fall which helps to reduce storm overflows in the area but population growth and the effects of climate change mean they cannot always be avoided.

“This massive infrastructure project was also accompanied by two new pumping stations.

“On very rare occasions, the storm outfall at Portobello is designed to discharge flows to sea via a long sea outfall when the capacity of the Peacehaven treatment works is exceeded.

“These flows are heavily diluted wastewater, with the greatest constituent being rainwater collected by the combined sewerage system. The current operation of the overflow is critical to the performance of the drainage system, particularly with respect to protecting properties in the city centre from flooding.”

Hove MP, Peter Kyle said: “The sea is at the heart of our community here in Hove and Portslade and these natural resources that are so precious to the well-being of our population and environment, must be respected. We are in a dirty water emergency, with water companies discharging raw sewage into English waterways over 1.2 million times between 2016 and 2021.

“In Hove specifically, I am in regular contact with Southern Water to try and combat this situation locally. I am now dealing with the Overflow Task Force team alongside the Shadow DEFRA team. The Government is failing to act and take the matter in hand so we must do what we can from the opposition bench.”

What better day to see ‘The King’s Speech’ than Coronation Saturday? I was hooked from the opening scene of the play when a diffident Prince Albert is dressing for yet another ceremonial occasion, devoid of emotion, hopeless. Albert’s life is blighted by his stammer as he is in the shadow of his dying father and his brother. His life is one of dreary duty and painful public speaking. His wife, Elizabeth, Duchess of York (Amy Brangwyn), seeks out the help of a Harley Street speech therapist, Lionel Logue. The play is about an unusual friendship that develops between Bertie and Lionel.

The plot of ‘The King’s Speech’ is familiar to many but playwright, David Seidler, introduces a lot of new twists and some dark humour surrounding the death of King George V. We see the politicians and Archbishop Cosmo Lang involved in Machiavellian plotting as David, King Edward loses interest in the monarchy due to his infatuation with the American, Wallis Simpson.

Sibling rivalry between David and Bertie blight Albert’s life. David is always wrong-footing him with vicious ease. I wonder if Bertie’s father would have been less of a formidable presence without his brother undermining him at every turn. Robin Fry and Suzanne Heritage are in their own little bubble as David and Wallis Simpson. Yearning for influence after abdication, they could have taken Britain down a very different and dangerous path in World War II.

Bertie emerges as the rightful king and he has a lot to prove. ‘The King’s Speech’ is a delightful mix of an intimate friendship that develops between two men and a political thriller with Britain on the brink of war. Seidler brings the context of the play to life, providing insight and depth as he raises questions about what would have happened if Edward had not abdicated.

Chris Parke, as Lionel Logue, the Speech Therapist, is everything you want him to be – Bertie’s confidant, asking incessant questions to release the shame and inferiority that ties Bertie’s tongue. He is humane, incisive and persistent.

Emmie Spencer is very convincing as Myrtle Logue and introduces another subplot about belonging which is not seen in the film.

Peter Jukes comes into his own in the second half as Archbishop Cosmo Lang and proves himself to be more of a schemer than all the politicians put together in ‘The King’s Speech.’ He injects humour as Seidler allows himself some gentle digs at the Church.

However, Lewis Todhunter must be applauded for his performance. He is suave, arrogant and yet crippled by self-doubt in equal measure. While Chris Parke is steady and constant, we see many different facets of Bertie’s character. Until Bertie meets Lionel, he has no anchor which Lewis Todhunter captures with ease. No-one tells Bertie how to behave. He is a tortured soul who wins hearts. During his speech in the final scene, every face is pregnant with emotion, willing him to succeed and the atmosphere in the room is palpable.

You may already know the plot of ‘The King’s Speech’ and you may have seen the film. But go and see this fresh production written by David Seidler. It is a masterpiece and the company at Brighton Little Theatre should be rightly proud of their accomplishment.

Five stars *****