Reclaiming St James Street

Written by Paul Elgood and published in GScene on Sun 29th Jan 2006

The LGBT community needs to reclaim St James Street and turn it not just into our gay village but one to rival the very best gay centres in the world. Compare parts of St James Street to say San Francisco's Castro Street, which is a strong and visible heartland for the gay community there.

The building blocks are already there, with the local business community investing heavily in the area. The potential is absolutely huge, but the political will within the council is missing. Just look at how long it took to get the rainbow flag flown on council buildings, the same is true about the council's denial that we even have a gay village.

Despite good intentions, previous attempts to regenerate the area have not been the success they should have been. Effective regeneration is led from the grassroots - ie the local business community and residents. What many of these people are now saying is that the street needs pedestrianising - a fantastic idea which could create a whole new public space in the city centre.

The business community have done and are doing their part. The key to successful regeneration is supporting these businesses as they invest in the local area. The council must look at heavily investing in the area and finishing the job it started a few years back.

A regenerated of St. James Street, would not only benefit our community, but also the rest of the Kemptown community, thus proving that an active gay community such as ours has the ability to create positive spill-over effects for the rest of the population. The implications of such a scheme in terms of community safety can not be underestimated.

I represent the Brunswick part of Hove, which offers a unique and highly attractive place for people to visit and live. Its got the venues of any great city centre but still retains the feel of a village or historic quarter. Various regeneration schemes in our area - and one taking place now at the Floral Clock - have been hugely successful partnerships between all concerned. But a key factor for the successful regeneration in our area has been the underlying property prices - when people pay what they have to live here, they want the area to be nice - they don't want rubbish on the streets, graffiti and endless anti-social behaviour. And this city still struggles with each of these.

What Brighton and Hove also desperately needs is a permanent AIDS memorial, providing a symbolic year round place for people to remember those who have suffered and are suffering from this terrible disease. There is only one other permanent memorial in the UK, and that's in Manchester. A highly visible piece of public art on the Old Steine could become the focus for this in Brighton and Hove. Moreover, it could become the focal point for a new gay quarter wholly led by the LGBT community and which in a relatively short space of time could go from being a neglected and tired area to the most attractive party of Brighton and Hove.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Paul Elgood, is Chair of the City Council's Equalities Forum. He can be contacted on 291162, via email at paul.elgood@brighton-hove.gov.uk or at the website www.brighton-hovelibdems.org.uk.