Brighton on nostuff.org archive | Chris Keene

A little run

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 21:34:31 +0000

Since leaving University 13 years a go I’ve been getting fatter. And generally not very healthy. It would be fair to say I started running to reduce the beer belly.

Getting the runkeeper app was a key development; my endeavours went from occasionally trotting aimlessly for a little while (then feeling very smug for the next month or so before doing it again) – to actually trying to improve times, distance and improve on routes taken. Stats and Maps. Pure crack.

Elected Police Commissioners

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:13:30 +0000

In 25 days time England and Wales will elect Police and Crime Commissioners for the first time.

Many are cynical that this will politicize high level decisions by the Police, which it will almost certainly will to some extent, but mostly people seem indifferent or simply unaware.

Me. I hoped that the candidates would not be politically aligned with parties, that we could judge them based on their policies and priorities, not because they are connected to the party we usually vote for. But this was always nothing but naive.

Falmer Station

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Falmer Station is a rather nice old station, serving the village of the same name. The village, which is actually just under half a mile away, due to being on a hill), got chopped in half back in the seventies/eighties when they decided to build a large dual carriage way right through the middle of it, is not it’s main source of passengers. The University of Sussex is just the other side of the A27 (with a handy bypass), and a small University of Brighton campus is the other side.

Brighton New England Quarter Photos

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:53:17 +0000

I don’t think we’re that good at recording the world we live in (photographs, sound) for future reference.

The first question that can arise from that is: is it important? I like to think yes without being able to provide particularly good reasons why.

In any case, I used to – and still – love to look at old photographs of the places I’ve lived and grew up in, found in local shops. museums and pubs.

In was perhaps this that was the inspiration back in 2004 to take some photos of an area of Brighton that was about to the redeveloped. The area in question was next to the main station and contained various crumbling buildings from the last 150 years sticking out of the undergrowth.

Brighton New England Quarter

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:30:35 +0000

A few years a go I created some new pages on the ‘New England Quater’, on the site of some old railway works next to Brighton station and near me. Originally the pages just had some photos of how the site looked before work started, and at various stages since (stupidly I normally took this late in the day as the sun was setting which produced poor photos), however at the time I couldn’t find any website providing general information on the project so provided some background and useful links. Since then there has been much more information put on to the web (and lot of information removed as well).

Brighton New council priorities

Fri, 25 May 2007 17:19:07 +0000

See this Argus article: New council leader spells out his party’s priorities, from the article:

Review Labour’s plans for a rapid transport bus system while re-examining the monorail project

Revisit the controversial school lottery scheme which has divided the city

Push for underground car parks in new developments to ensure extra homes do not add pressure to the already overstretched road network, and

Concentrate on delivering less congestion by removing build-outs while putting plans for a park and ride on the back burner.

OK. Council Tax, sounds good but what will need to be cut (unless we can find savings, or the increase in the number of homes brings about a big enough increase to sustain things).

Brighton and Hove local elections

Fri, 04 May 2007 15:04:11 +0000

The Tory’s have a majority, but not overall control. How? Look around you and play spot the tory voter. Sure there are quite a few well off people, but vastly out numbered by those who look ‘brighton-ish’, students and others who just don’t look like tory voters (of course, plenty of the well off, business types also vote labour, especially in Brighton). I just don’t walk around town and think that the majority of people I see are likely to vote tory (yes I know how stupid that sounds, can’t judge by looks).

Brighton local council elections : May 2007

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:07:59 +0000

I live in the Preston Park ward in Brighton for the May 2007 elections.

A couple of days a go I had received anything from any party so went for a look on the net.

Labour
Conservatives: Two sites [here and here] neither of which mentions the local elections or what they stand for. Not impressed.
Lib Dem
Green Party

What do I consider when deciding my vote?

Policies of the LOCAL party
My perception of their ability to run the council
Candidates of my ward (Preston Park)
Not as a protest vote or as a message to the national parties

My choice is Labour: They have done a good job in the last few years (though no party has overall control, they have the majority). I like the fact that the council has been progressive, the sucess of the Jubilee library as one of the first PPP projects to produce such an impressive building can not be over rated. In fact the whole area around the library has been handled well and created a pleasant area of town.

R.I.P F.I.P

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:02:08 +0000

FIP is basically the world’s best radio station. Fact. It plays a random mix of decent new music, jazz, classical, more cool music, with no adverts, or DJs, or anything except a news bulletin at the totally logical time of 50 minutes past the hour.

Oh and the news bulletin is in French (language of inferior foreign types). But that maybe due to it being a French station. But we could pick it up in Brighton. We don’t want to get too technical about it but it had something to do with the sea being very flat between France and Brighton. or something.