The West Hill Community Association was one of the14 community groups which formed the coalition “AGHAST” (Action on Gasworks Housing, Safety, Affordability and Transparency) to oppose the proposed development of high-rise blocks on the former gasworks site near the Grade 1 Listed Kemp Town Estate. To the dismay of local councillors, residents and amenity associations a planning inspector representing the then secretary of state Angela Rayner (yes, she) has now overturned the decision of our City’s Planning Committee to refuse the scheme. Our councillors gave three reasons for refusal:
The scheme would represent an overdevelopment of the site with excessive scale, massing, density and heights that are not in keeping with the area, which along with the design and material palette would cumulatively harm the townscape, landscape and seascape of the area and its heritage assets. (It should be noted that the site is not in a “Tall Buildings Zone”).
The under-provision of larger units would fail to meet the identified housing need of the city. (It offers an) unacceptable standard of accommodation for future residents by reason of poor levels of amenity and light to some dwellings.
To rub salt into the wound the Inspector has directed that our City Council pay the costs of developers St William, the nom de guerre of Berkeley Homes. These costs could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Berkeley Homes, incidentally, last published profits of £179 million. The Inspector justified his costs decision by describing the Council’s behaviour in opposing the scheme as unreasonable!
A retired professor of architecture at Brighton University has questioned the impartiality of the Planning Inspector, citing the Inspector’s previous support for the suggestion by a “think tank” that “councillors should have no say over deciding applications for new developments”.
The professor further called the scheme a “ghastly overdevelopment”; no wonder Angela Rayner bought her £800,000 seaside flat on the other side of the city in Hove!
It’s good to be writing to you again with an update on our work across Brighton & Hove.
We’re proud to call this city home. Known for its warmth, diversity, and resilience, Brighton & Hove has always stood strong in the face of adversity. In 2024, our community came together to reject anti-immigration riots and continues to stand firmly against division and hate. Now more than ever, we must uphold these values and work to strengthen social cohesion.
Community Action in St George’s Mews
There’s nothing better than seeing our community come together. Recently, we supported a community action day on St George’s Mews – residents joined forces with us (Sue and Ellen), and the team at St Mungo’s to weed, litter pick, and paint over tagging. St Mungo’s lead on important work for our community, managing supported accommodation and a housing programme for people with complex needs.
This area, along with Gloucester Street, is one of seven identified hotspots in the city where Sussex Police are focusing efforts due to rising antisocial behaviour (ASB). While a tidy-up day won’t solve everything, it supports the Broken Windows Theory – the idea that visible signs of disorder can lead to more serious crime. There’s still much more to be done in this area, but this was a positive step forward.
A big thanks to everyone who helped us that day. We’d especially like to thank Molly Baskar, who stopped by on her final day as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO). Molly has been an outstanding presence in our area, consistently going above and beyond to support residents and build trust in the community.
We’re delighted to hear she’s being promoted within the Police ranks, a well-deserved recognition of her dedication and impact. We wish her every success in this exciting next chapter.
New Road Improvements
You may have noticed the removal of benches on New Road. This is part of a broader plan to improve safety, accessibility, and the overall feel of the area. Originally designed in 2007 as England’s first shared space street, New Road is now in need of renewal. The council is working with partners – police, businesses, community groups, and health services – to reimagine the space. Seating will return, but with designs that help reduce ASB and make the area more welcoming for everyone.
Supporting Brighton’s Independent Businesses
Ellen has been working to represent independent businesses across the North Laine and in Seven Dials. As the festive season approaches, we encourage you to shop local. Supporting independent businesses means reinvesting in our community. Local traders are the heartbeat of Brighton.
Our city is lucky to have a vibrant independent shopping scene. While many high streets across the UK are dominated by the same chains, Brighton stands out as a hub of creativity and uniqueness.
We know it’s tempting to do your weekly shop in one supermarket – especially as we lead increasingly busy lives – but it’s worth bearing in mind the benefits to our local economy when you shop local. The theory goes, when you spend £10 at an independent café, over £5 stays in the local economy. Spend it at a chain, and just £1.40 remains. That difference matters to the community you live in.
So, consider gifting from Brighton’s many independent traders this Christmas. Many have deep roots in the city, with generations of family-run businesses.
The Brighton Gift Card is a great way to support local. Business leaders are urging residents to “Make your Christmas rewards count” by choosing the Brighton Gift Card.
Christmas Events in North Laine – On Small Business Saturday, 6 December, the BID team are hosting a festive event including roaming choirs, brass bands, and the launch of a themed window dressing competition. There’s also talk of late-night shopping opportunities on Bond Street this year.
Brighton Youth Centre Reopening
Young people need safe spaces to connect, get support, and explore their interests. The refurbished Brighton Youth Centre on Edward Street is nearly ready to open, with facilities including a skate park and band rehearsal rooms.
Sue, a trustee of the centre, has been closely involved in the refurbishment. The official opening is at the end of October, when the centre will move from its temporary home on Gloucester Road.
Protecting Our Libraries
We’re opposing council proposals to close three community libraries – Hollingdean, Westdene, and Rottingdean – and reduce hours at Hove and Jubilee. Libraries, like youth centres, are vital community spaces. We believe the council can find the necessary funding elsewhere.
Food Waste Collections Begin
15 September, Brighton & Hove City Council started food waste collections, for the first time in the city. This is limited to in Saltdean, Rottingdean, Ovingdean, Woodingdean and Brighton Marina to begin with but will be rolled out to other areas over three stages. In the current proposed timeline, Central Brighton and Seven Dials can expect to see this service from March 2026.
New Blood Donation Centre
A new blood donation centre has opened at 1 Gloucester Place. Sue, a long-time donor, donated blood at the official opening on 16 October. If you’re over 17, we encourage you to book an appointment and donate. It is a selfless act that can save lives, and one donation can help up to three people.
Reporting Antisocial Behaviour
Remember if you’re noticing an increase in ASB, please report it to the police so they can take action. For emergencies, call 999; for non-emergencies, call 101, or report online at sussex.police.uk/report-online.
If the problem is persistent and escalating, contact us, your councillors, and we’ll help connect you with the right support.
Corinne Sweet, The Whistler’s Interesting Person correspondent, talks to Amy Newman, Queen of Pearson Keehan the new estate agent on the block
If your idea of an estate agent is something out of Stath Lets Flats or Dubai: Buying the Dream. Then think again. There’s a new gal on the block and she’s breaking the mould.
Amy Newman is a rare breed: a woman Director of a relatively new estate agent, Pearson Keehan, in Seven Dials. Born and bred in Hove, Amy spent her formative years in the midst of a football-loving household. Her father, Paul, set up and coaches the West Hove Dynamos, a grassroots football club. Her mother, Jayne, does the admin. Amy helps with the social media and advertising. And her brothers, Lee, Ross and Adam, played football and now coach the Dynamos themselves.
“My footballing family gave me a great background training for working as an estate agent”, grins Amy. “I was a bit of a tomboy and being the youngest of four I had to learn to stand my own ground.” Loving the outdoors, she played football, like her three bros, but also did netball and ballet. Amy went to schools in Hove and Brighton (St Andrew’s Primary and Blatchington Mill), and being sports and animal-mad decided she’d train as an animal care assistant.
Leaving school at 16 she went to Plumpton College to learn her trade helping abused, abandoned and sick animals. “I grew up with dogs and cats and really wanted to work with them”, she says. She ended up with a rescue dog, Poppy, who had a heart-wrenching history, plus a mature cat, Edward.
While finishing her Diploma at Plumpton, Amy worked in Pet’s Corner, in Hove, rising to Manager. On graduation she was offered work by a friend in the, now defunct, Brighton Accommodation Agency . It was here Amy began to cut her teeth on the house-purchasing business.
She realised that helping people find a home, buy or sell their properties, was an important skill to have. “In many ways you meet people when they are having a difficult time: divorcing, moving cities or jobs, or after a death”, explains Amy, “You almost are a therapist and you have to understand how to help people”.
Amy’s experience growing up in a robust, but supportive home, and her work with animals, meant she has stacks of common sense mixed with compassion. Like her mother, she is a great organiser and is good at strategic thinking.
Meanwhile, Amy worked for well-known local agencies for 13 years, saved hard and lived at home. She eventually bought her own home near Mile Oak Farm where she lives with partner, Billy, who is an up-and-coming DJ.
However, working in estate agencies has not all been plain sailing. Amy has found the glass ceiling has sometimes been reinforced with heavy-duty concrete by particular types of male colleagues. “It’s sometimes felt like being in a frustrating boys’ club”, she says wryly, “But my experience working with animals had shaped my compassionate approach to people.”
Amy decided to rise above any challenging situations thrown at her at work. “I’ve learned to manage complex and sensitive situations with empathy and understanding”. And certainly, it’s helped Amy succeed in a male-dominated industry.
Now working with Chris Pearson and Kevin Keehan, who happen to be old friends from childhood, their attitudes to work inspired Amy to join them in their new enterprise. Together they set up Pearson Keehan together after the trials of lockdown.
Amy joined on a self-employed basis in October 2024. Tragedy struck in January 2025 and Amy ruptured her Achilles heel playing netball. While injured, Amy used the time to develop new branding, a website and designed the new office at Seven Dials. Ironically, it was the same building she worked in (Mishon Mackay) at the beginning of her career – but it was now getting an Amy makeover. She had gone full circle. Having worked closely with Chris and Kevin for the launch of Pearson Keehan, Amy became a Director when the Seven Dials branch opened in August 2025.
“I have always been really focused on selling and buying houses, which I think is important.” Amy says it’s important for sellers to have a clear strategy and approach to selling in the current uncertain market, which is why it’s important to work with the right agent. She believes it’s important to do your homework and stay positive. Meanwhile, in the office, Amy says she likes to lead from “under the radar” as she has no need to stoke her ego.
Amy is chic, calm and straight-talking. Exuding quiet confidence she believes women are generally more empathic and treat customers well. Plus, she has words of wisdom for any woman wanting to rise to the top in the estate agency business: “Back yourself, know you’ll succeed, but do it your way”.
You know how sometimes you look at someone and think “You look kinda familiar” but you can’t place the face and move on, think nothing more of it. But sometimes you think “You, I know”. Well…
I was in the Helm Gallery to meet The Whistler’s food editor who was there to discuss a show she was recording and I was having a look around and… “You look kinda familiar. What’s going on here?”
“What’s going on is I’m taking over the Helm Gallery for six weeks” Norman Cook tells me. “It’s half art exhibition and it’s half art sale. There’s lots of prints by artists that are associated with me or who I’ve collaborated with, and it’s all based around the book “It Ain’t Over… ‘Til The Fat Boy Sings”.
“I realised at the beginning of this year that I am entering my 40th year since I quit my day job at Rounder Records and ran off to join the circus, and I was thinking about how to mark or celebrate that anniversary.
“I’ve always shied away from doing an autobiography. I’ve been asked a few times and I just, I can’t remember the really good bits. And the bits I can remember I can’t tell while my children and my parents are still alive, so when this idea of a visual documentary came about it seemed a good idea. It’s a coffee table book, so mainly pictures. There’s no warts and all stories, nothing about celebrity drug taking, I’m afraid…”
Could we do an after hours version?
“Yeah, talk to me about that later”.
Are you one of these characters who’ve always squirreled stuff away? “Yes, I’ve got every single backstage pass I’ve ever have. The first year, I tried to keep tickets every gig I played, that was just untenable, but I’ve kept the backstage passes from every single one, and I’ve kept photos of all sorts, the boxer shorts that inspired the album title “You Come A Long Way, Baby”. I’ve also got the dubious honor of having a dildo named after me and we’ve got a photo of that in the book…
Moving swiftly past the inevitable line about it being a pop-up book… When you were a kid and you went to gigs when you’re 13 or whatever, have you still still got the stubs?
“Yeah, the stubs are in the book, there’s the fanzine I used to write for…”
It’s a fantastic memorabilia collection, and while it’s obviously Norman’s book, a little bit This is Your Life, it’s also a lovely ride through the pop cultural landscape of the last 40 years.
40 years. That’s a long time. Are you going to continue doing it?
“Doing what?”
You know the thing you do, where you stand there and play records.
“Oh, that thing. Yeah, that’s what I do. I’ve done that thing twice this week already. I’ve got this weekend up the next weekend. I mean, Amsterdam, Stockholm and somewhere else, and then do some British dates in December. This year, I’ll do 109 shows, which is my personal all time record for shows in a year”.
That’s extraordinary. 109 shows. That’s… almost every other day. It’s not far off.
“It’s two a week or one every three days. I mean, it has been quite relentless, but I love my job. It never feels like work. I just love it”.
The Chilli Pickle’s Alun and Dawn Sperring are two of Brighton’s most intrepid restaurateurs and have been travelling through South Asia on a quest for adventure and the best food they can find. They tell Gilly Smith what treasures they brought home.
With kids, Fletcher, now 12, and Stanley, 18 in tow, Alun and Dawn Sperring have spent most of their lives exploring India, from the crazy bazaars of Old Delhi to the hill stations in the western ghats to the tropics in the south and the deserts of Rajasthan.
Much of what they’ve found over the years has made its way onto the menu of their restaurant, the award winning, OctoberBest favourite, Chilli Pickle, now back in its original home in the Lanes. The Laal Maas, a fiery mutton curry comes from an early trip to Jaipur, its deep red chilli colour and a robust taste of whole garam masala served with hot red pickled onions and naan. The lassi, a traditional yoghurt drink seasoned with cardamom and signature tasty milk skin on top, they found served in a clay pot which, once finished, is smashed.
Now they’re back from their latest trips through Kerala, Varanasi, Chennai in India and Lahore in Pakistan with new flavours and stories to tell.
“When we visited Lahore this time, it was all about the nose to tail eating and meat cooked over fire on the streets”, Alun tells me. “We’d go for an early breakfast meal of paya which is goat’s trotter soup, which they’ve cooked overnight for the locals who start work at around 5am. It’s a wonderful way to start the day, a big dose of collagen and protein in one go. They finish the vat and then they start cooking all over again through the night.”
Paya, Chilli Pickle-style isn’t quite the whole trotter, but its broth, cooked down into a sticky consommé, is going down a storm in Brighton. Alun and Dawn pride themselves on offering the real South Asian taste that they’ve found on their countless adventures. Their spicing is honest and unapologetic, and they’re happy to replicate some of the more challenging dishes; even the brain curry has been on the menu. But will the Katakat make it to the specials? “Ooh that was good”, he sighs. “It’s street food that’s a bit like the Japanese Tepanyaki but made with goat testicles chopped up with mixed spice, green chilli and butter.”
I asked him how he can recreate the rich eating experiences of India and Pakistan, the throngs of local workers in the vegetarian canteens, or messes, of industrial Madras, or the unruly crowds at Kebab Corner in Chennai, and the calm of the house boats of Kerala where flat fish is a must. Answer: they don’t. The taste is enough to transport anyone who dreams of India. “We loved the kebabs in Chennai,” says Alun. “We now do the Malai chicken kebab which is topped with a spicy rich cream drizzled with butter and spiked with cardamom and kewra. It’s another level. We accompany all our kebabs with razor thin onion salad with a loose spicy green chutney, so we’re accompanying all our kebabs on the menu that way now.”
The indigenous Keralan pomfret is simply replaced with local plaice in our Kettuvallam Whole Plaice Fry”, he tells me. “It’s just rubbed with a really spicy marinade, ginger, chilli powder, awain seeds, rice flour, fresh lime curry leaf and fried dry and served with a lovely punchy ginger chutney and tempered coconut rice. And it makes a lovely side lunch or dinner special.”
Look out for the Nihari keema kulcha from Lahore with marrow bone gravy, a flatbread stuffed with beef Koobidah and served with a deliciously unctuous sticky spiced marrow bone gravy mopped up with stuffed flat bread.
l The Chilli Pickle – 6-8 Meeting House Lane, BN1 1HB
The Whistler 