With just a few weeks to go before Platinum Jubilee celebrations are held across the country, there are growing signs that Brighton and Hove City Council has failed to prepare properly for our City to participate in the festivities, and that local people will miss out.

Jubilee celebrations are due to begin with a four day bank holiday between Thursday 2nd and Sunday 5th June, where local authorities across the country will take park in a series of civic events, beginning with the lighting of traditional jubilee beacons on the first evening and continuing with street parties and the announcement of civic honours for those cities which have participated.

Brighton and Hove City Council has previously always participated in the jubilee celebrations.  We are after all a City with a royal history and a Royal Palace and there is much affection for the Queen who has visited the City many times over the years, including when she conferred City status on Brighton Hove.  The Platinum Jubilee is an historic event and one the city needs to mark.

However in a worrying sign, it was reported this week by The Argus that Brighton and Hove City Council had decided not to proceed with two of the city’s three traditional beacon lighting events, disappointing a very many residents who were looking forward to it as well as the Royal British legion.

The City has always participated customary nationwide lighting of beacons by lighting beacons at Hove Esplanade, Norfolk Groyne in Brighton and at Beacon Hill in Rottingdean. Residents and local community groups such as the Royal British Legion have always attended and enjoyed these occasions and shared in the moment when we come together as a country and they expected these beacon lighting events to go ahead, particularly as they had been listed on the council’s website.

However earlier this month, with no local details of the event having been published, Rottingdean residents began to become concerned that the Council had not made arrangements for the beacons to be lit at Rottingdean. 

A concerned resident asked a question at a Rottingdean Parish Council but did not received a positive response and a subsequent Rottingdean Parish Council Notice about the Jubilee weekend contained no information about any Beacon-lighting event.

This week our Conservative Candidate for the Rottingdean Coastal by-election Lynda Hyde called for urgent confirmation from the Council that the Rottingdean Beacon will indeed be lit at Beacon Hill to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee for the enjoyment of local residents and to mark the historic occasion of 70 years of the Queen’s reign.  

The Rottingdean Beacon has been lit at every Jubilee for as long as residents can remember and has great historical significance, dating back 400 years to when they when they were used as part of an early warning system for the Spanish Armada.

The Council finally broke its silence and said that neither the Rottingdean Beacon not the Norfolk Groyne Beacon would be lit. It appeared that the council had forgotten to organise an event, and for the first time in living memory, there will be no Beacon lit on Beacon Hill Rottingdean.

Brighton and Hove City Council has not been proactive in organising Jubilee events.  Following questions put by Cllr Garry Peltzer Dunn, it has now become clear that the Council chose not to participate in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours Competition.  This is such a shame as Brighton and Hove would have been ideally suited to participate in the competition, which provided local authorities with an opportunity showcase their local civic pride, interesting heritage and record of innovation, put their hometowns on the map and bring greater prosperity and opportunity.

And while other Councils have been sprucing up their towns by preparing their main public gardens for the Jubilee and tidying up the city, Brighton and Hove’s are in their worst state ever.  While Eastbourne is planted out with beautiful flowers, Brighton and Hove’s premier public garden at Old Steine Gardens is in its worst ever state, with the Victoria Fountain broken and the flower beds in a poor condition.  The Greens and Labour rejected proposals to run a City in Bloom for the Jubilee.

The Green/Labour Council has not put in an effort to celebrate the Jubilee in Brighton and Hove so far.  It would be a bad reflection on the Greens if they are putting their ideological policy to end the monarchy ahead of allowing residents of Brighton and Hove to celebrate the Jubilee.

With five weeks to go the council needs to get its act together fast and ensure that local residents have something to celebrate.