New board criticised

Brighton & Hove City Council has officially revealed the twelve members of its newly established Seafront Development Board, signalling a renewed commitment to revitalising the city’s iconic shoreline - but the move has drawn criticism from the Green Party, who accuse Labour of sidelining public accountability and undermining the role of elected councillors.

The board, which brings together a distinguished group of local leaders and professionals, is tasked with guiding investment and long-term strategy across the city’s seafront, with early focus on the redevelopment of Black Rock and the restoration of Madeira Terrace. It will also play a role in delivering the broader ambitions of the City Plan and seafront regeneration programme, which goes beyond Brighton beach in both directions, to Shoreham Harbour and Saltdean.

Following an open recruitment process that attracted over 90 applicants, the final line-up was selected by the Labour administration. Lord Steve Bassam of Brighton, former leader of Brighton Borough Council and a member of the House of Lords’ inquiry into seaside towns, has been named chair (see A bit of pizzazz.) He is now joined by Vice Chair Councillor Jacob Taylor, Deputy Leader of the council and Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration.

Among the board’s private sector members are Georgia Collard-Watson, Principal Associate Architect at Grimshaw Architects; Carolyn Jikiemi-Roberts, Director at Hot Yoga South Brighton; Alastair Hignell CBE, a former England rugby international and MS advocate; Alma Howell, Historic England’s inspector of historic buildings; and Simon Lambor, Director of Matsim Group.

Also appointed are Juliet Sargeant, an award-winning garden designer known for her Chelsea Flower Show work; Rob Sloper, Senior Development Director at Landsec U+I; and Pete Tyler, a retired travel executive with longstanding ties to the tourism sector. Representing the council’s political leadership, Councillor Julie Cattell, Lead for Major Projects, and Councillor Birgit Miller, Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism, complete the board’s line-up. (Pics, from top to bottom: Bassam, Miller, Sargeant, and Howell.)

However, the Greens have voiced concerns about the board’s structure and remit. According to the Brighton and Hove News, the Greens said ‘the ruling party had packed the board with Labour politicians, questioned the process for choosing the chair and asking whether anyone else was considered for the role’.

Councillor Kerry Pickett, the Greens’ spokesperson for regeneration was quoted as saying: ‘There’s a risk that this appointed board could push through development decisions behind closed doors - decisions that will shape our city for generations.’ She added, according to Brighton and Hove News, that the Greens ‘strongly support the regeneration of the seafront but believe it must be guided by transparency, consultation, and democratic oversight.’ However, I can find no official source for these quotes and opinions (nothing on the Greens website for example.)

The council has said the board will meet quarterly, with a role focused on ‘guidance, challenge and championing’ rather than decision-making. According to the council’s own statement, the board will help ‘shape future development of the seafront’ by advising officers and councillors, while all formal planning decisions will remain within the council’s democratic structures.

On the Beach hit by weather

Thousands of music-lovers were evacuated from Brighton seafront yesterday evening after a Met Office yellow warning for thunderstorms prompted a swift and precautionary response from organisers of Brighton’s On The Beach festival. The warning, which forecast heavy rain and potential flooding, led to what some described as a ‘Code Red’-style evacuation. Crowds were seen leaving the site in orderly fashion just after 6pm as thunderclouds gathered and conditions deteriorated.

Drone footage - from Sussex Express - captured the mass movement away from the beach, with stewards guiding people safely from the festival grounds. The yellow warning had been issued earlier in the day, but organisers initially proceeded with caution. At 5.30pm, a statement on the festival’s Instagram page confirmed that the show would go on - ‘The weather forecast from the Met Office is now clear skies for the rest of the evening, but prepare for change.’

However, the skies did not stay clear. As heavy rain swept in and lightning was reported nearby, the decision was made to evacuate the site. Aerial photographs published by the Sussex Express showed thousands leaving the seafront just as the storm arrived. Emergency services assisted the evacuation, with no reported injuries or arrests.

By around 7.30pm, conditions improved and the yellow warning was lifted. Festival organisers reopened the site and revised the schedule, allowing the evening’s acts to proceed under clearer skies. The Argus reported that fans praised the organisers for ‘putting safety first without cancelling the whole evening’.

While no official ‘Code Red’ declaration was made, the phrase circulated widely among attendees as a way to describe the highest level of threat response used in emergency planning. The sudden storm interrupted the rhythm of the evening, but the quick return of music and clear skies by nightfall brought the crowd back together.

Two Grey Herrings

Here is the 12th of 25 stained glass window designs on the Palace Pier which AI and I are using as inspiration for some of these BrightonBeach365 daily posts - see Stained Glass Window 1 for background. This one shows a stylised coastal landscape. In the foreground, two fish lie on a pebbly or rocky shore, their bodies rendered in shades of green and outlined in black, with prominent red eyes. Behind them, a golden-yellow beach meets a bright blue sea composed of layered bands of darker and lighter blues. In the distance, a white sailboat with a red sail floats on the water under a sky filled with stylised white clouds and pale blue light. 

A limerick starter

Two fish on the shingle lay low,

With clouds and a sailboat in tow.

Said one with a grin,

‘We’re caught in a spin -

Glass trapped us, but what a great show!’

Two Grey Herrings (with apologies to Agatha Christie)

It was just past eight on a damp August morning when Miss Ada Fossett, retired milliner and part-time crossword champion, made her habitual stroll along Brighton Beach. The tide was out, the air thick with salt and gossip, and the seafront unusually quiet - save for a small cluster near the Banjo Groyne.

Laid side by side on the shingle were two fish. Not just any fish - herrings, unmistakably grey, and arranged with such unsettling symmetry that Ada stopped mid-step. One pointed east, the other west, as though in disagreement over where the truth lay. Between them, embedded in the pebbles, was a torn page from The Times crossword, Tuesday’s edition - curiously, only one clue had been filled in: 8 Down: Red herring (6,7).

Inspector Blodgett of the Brighton constabulary was summoned. Gruff, sceptical, and already two sugars into his second tea, he at first dismissed the fish as the work of pranksters. But Ada, glancing sideways at the crossword, murmured, ‘Not red. Grey. Someone’s being precise.’

The investigation led them through a web of local characters: a disgraced professor of ichthyology turned beach artist, a jilted puppeteer whose seaside show had recently closed, and a fortune-teller with a vendetta against crossword compilers. All had motives - revenge, reputation, or riddles.

The breakthrough came not from forensics, but from fish. A witness recalled seeing a man in a pinstripe suit carefully placing the herrings at dawn. Not just any man - Mr Edwin Trellis, publisher of The Times puzzle section, known for his weekly beach swims and unorthodox marketing tactics.

Confronted, Trellis confessed. It was a publicity stunt for a new cryptic clue series, inspired by Christie’s own fondness for misleading leads. But the twist - and there always is one - came when Ada, flipping the paper over, found a scribbled name and date. That very morning. Trellis hadn’t written it.

The real mystery had been hijacked. Beneath the herrings, buried shallowly in the pebbles, police unearthed a small locket containing a photograph - and a name long believed lost in the postwar chaos. The fish were not just herrings. They were a sign. And someone, somewhere on the Brighton seafront, was using sleight of species to point towards a cold case, about to be warmed by the sun.

‘Grey herrings,’ Ada murmured, eyes narrowing. ‘Not a distraction. A direction.’

A roker’s tail

Found on the beach: all that’s left of a thornback ray (Raja clavata) - its distinctive tail.

The thornback ray, or ‘roker’ as it is often called in the UK, is a familiar and charismatic resident of British coastal waters, including the shores around Brighton. Its name comes from the distinctive thorn-like spines that stud its back and tail - these are actually modified skin teeth, giving the ray a rough, almost armored appearance. With its broad, diamond-shaped body and short snout, the thornback ray glides over sandy and muddy seabeds, its mottled brown-grey upper surface dappled with yellowish patches and dark spots, blending perfectly with the sea floor.

Unlike most true rays, thornback rays are technically skates, and they lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young. Each spring and summer, females deposit tough, rectangular egg cases - known to beachcombers as ‘mermaid’s purses’ - in sheltered areas on the seabed (see also A catshark that is a dogfish.) Inside each case, a single embryo develops, feeding on a yolk sac for four to five months before hatching as a miniature ray, already equipped with the beginnings of its signature thorns. Juveniles spend their early months in shallow nursery grounds, gradually venturing into deeper waters as they grow. Males reach maturity at around seven years old, females at about nine, and some individuals may live for over two decades.

Thornback rays are opportunistic predators, feeding on a variety of crustaceans and small fish. Juveniles prefer shrimps and small crabs, while adults tackle larger crustaceans and fish, using their powerful jaws to crush shells. The thornback’s rough skin and formidable thorns provide some defense against predators, and these features become more pronounced with age, especially in females, who develop a line of large thorns along their backs.

There is often confusion between skates and rays, but the differences are subtle yet significant. Skates like the thornback lay eggs, while most true rays bear live young. Skates have stockier tails without venomous spines and tend to have more pronounced dorsal fins, whereas rays often have slender, whip-like tails and, in some species, venomous stings. In the UK, the term ‘ray’ is often used for both, adding to the muddle, especially at fishmongers where ‘skate wings’ are a common offering.

Around Brighton, the thornback ray is a familiar catch for anglers and is sometimes landed by commercial fisheries. Conservation groups in Sussex have launched campaigns to monitor ray populations and promote sustainable fishing practices, though the thornback ray is currently listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Other rays share these waters, including the undulate ray with its wavy markings, the blonde ray, and the once-abundant but now critically endangered common skate. The fate of these species is intertwined with that of the thornback, as they are often caught together in mixed fisheries. The challenge is compounded by the difficulty in identifying species once they are skinned and sold as generic ‘skate’ wings. See Wikipedia for more on the roker!

A truck in thought

This photo shows a Davis Trackhire truck, equipped with a hydraulic crane, unloading or positioning a large stack of heavy-duty panels - temporary ground protection or trackway, designed to create stable surfaces for vehicles and crowds on uneven or soft ground. In the background, you can see the calm turquoise sea with the silhouettes of the Rampion wind farm turbines on the horizon, under a clear blue sky. What is the truck thinking?

‘How curious it is, to pause amid the salt-kissed air, steel sinews humming with potential, beneath the ever-watchful sun. They call me Davis - a name painted boldly upon my flanks, though what is a name to a mind busy with purpose and observation? Here, perched between shingle and surf, I contemplate more than just my cargo.

I have journeyed on many roads: winding motorways by dawn, city grids pulsing with restless ambition, and now the still calm of the coast. Each mile of my travel has etched stories into my chassis - patience when the world is slow, resilience when the elements test me, satisfaction upon completing my duty.

Today I am burdened, yet unbowed; my payload stacked with the meticulous care of intent and design. My mechanical arm curves with the choreography of industry, a testament to human ingenuity and my own quiet resolve. I find purpose in service, pride in precision. My mission is as clear as the horizon: to deliver, to build, to form the bedrock upon which progress is staged.

Yet I am not without wonder. As I gaze seaward, turbines spin far off, guardians of a future knit with wind and light. I marvel at what I carry, but also at what carries me - the systems and hands, decisions and designs, that coalesce in a moment like this.

I am more than machinery, more than fuel and metal. I am a witness to endeavour, a bearer of burdens, a contemplative spirit at the margin of earth and water. My wheels may rest, but my mind, galvanised by quiet reflection, wanders still.

So let it be written: I am truck, yet thinker; labourer, yet philosopher. On this stony edge, I am at once at home and ever in motion, ever turning ideas as surely as I turn my wheels.’

Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm

Today, Bloc Party headline On the Beach, the annual summer music festival that transforms Brighton’s seafront into a large-scale open-air concert venue. Held each July, the event draws thousands of fans from across the UK to the city’s iconic shingle beach. With the Rampion wind farm on the horizon and stages set just metres from the tide, the festival once again brings live music to one of the most distinctive coastal settings in the country.

On the Beach began in 2021, building on Brighton’s long love affair with large-scale seaside music. It channels the same spirit that drew quarter of a million people to Fatboy Slim’s chaotic beach show back in 2002 - a landmark event that still hangs heavy over Brighton’s pop-culture memory. Unlike that free-for-all, the modern festival is carefully ticketed and spread over several weekends each July, bringing big-name DJs, rock bands and indie outfits to stages erected almost within reach of the tide. Past years have seen Royal Blood, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Kooks and The Libertines claim the beach. This summer’s run continues the tradition, with today’s billing dedicated to a more guitar-driven, indie flavour.

At the heart of it all are Bloc Party, who tonight perform their seminal debut album Silent Alarm in full, marking twenty years since it first tore through the UK charts. Released in 2005, Silent Alarm fused jagged post-punk guitar lines, urgent dance rhythms and raw, nervy vocals into a sound that defined an era of British indie. Songs like Banquet and Helicopter became anthems in sticky clubs and muddy fields alike. Over the two decades since, Bloc Party have shape-shifted through electronic experiments, introspective rock and propulsive returns to form, all without losing their taste for sharp edges and restless energy.

Frontman Kele Okereke has cited everyone from The Smiths to electronic pioneers like A Guy Called Gerald as influences. Guitarist Russell Lissack, meanwhile, has a side passion for rescuing stray cats and once briefly joined Ash on tour. Joining the two founders of the band on stage will be Louise Bartle on drums and percussion - officially part of the band since 2015 - and Harry Deacon, who took over bass duties in 2023.

Sharing the stage with Bloc Party today are Everything Everything, the Manchester art-rock outfit celebrated for twisting pop into clever, unexpected shapes, and Mystery Jets, long-time darlings of the indie circuit whose bright, slightly psychedelic songs like Two Doors Down still ring with youthful rush. They’re joined by Leeds newcomers English Teacher (see English Teacher on the beach, who played this very location a couple of months ago) and Liz Lawrence, the genre-hopping singer-songwriter whose crystalline vocals have become a Brighton favourite. Rounding out the bill are FEET, bringing fresh energy off the back of their new album, and Martial Arts, a rising local band adding yet more sun-soaked guitar sparkle to the beach.

Trans Pride march

Brighton is hosting Trans Pride today, with thousands of people - not least Queen Victoria! - gathering to celebrate and advocate for trans, non-binary and intersex rights. The day began with a rally in Victoria Gardens at 11am, followed by a march through the city and along the seafront. An accessible route was provided from the Old Ship Hotel, and free taxis have been arranged to help participants move between key locations.

The march is a central part of the annual event, which began in 2013 and has grown to become the largest of its kind in Europe. Brighton & Hove City Council is flying the trans flag above its buildings in support of the event, and members of the council’s LGBTQ+ Workers Forum are present with a stall in New Steine Gardens. The city is expecting between 30,000 and 45,000 people to attend throughout the day.

After the march, the focus shifts to the park and community spaces - see Trans Pride and Scenemag. In New Steine Gardens, there are speeches, stalls, and performances on the main stage, while Dorset Gardens is hosting acoustic music and a relaxed picnic area. Brighton Dome and Corn Exchange are running a makers’ market featuring work by trans artists and vendors. The celebrations will continue into the evening with an after-party at North Laine Brewhouse from around 7pm.

Trans Pride Brighton is both a protest and a celebration. It provides a platform for visibility and solidarity at a time when trans rights remain a subject of national debate. The event continues to grow in size and significance, with its route along the seafront making it one of the city’s most visible annual demonstrations.