Brighton History Centre - Sign the Petition

[hart's shirt]

So does anyone know much about this David Smith character? What are his interests etc? Would be good to make a link with those, if possible, rather than than an appeal for the good of history which might fall on deaf ears.

From http://www.brightonandhoveconservatives.com/page/18/

Councillor David Smith, Mayor of the City of Brighton & Hove 2006/7.

I was born in Hove but have lived most of my life in Brighton. I went to Stanford Road Junior School and Shoreham Grammar School and did my national service in the Royal Navy. I married Pat in 1959 at St Peters Church in Brighton and we have 3 children Christopher, Joanne & Alison and 5 grandchildren.

I have been a Conservative councillor in Brighton since 1974 with a short break in 1995. I have been a member of all the major committees at one time or another. I was Chairman of the Tourism, Museums and Entertainments committee in 1978 and 1983-86. I was Chairman of the British Resorts Association in 1987/9 and I was made an Honorary Alderman in 1997 on the dissolution of the old Borough Council. I have been the Conservative spokesman for Culture, Tourism and Sport for Brighton & Hove City Council for a number of years.

My special interests include increasing/improving affordable sporting facilities for all residents regardless of age or disability and an expanding culture/tourist industry that will bring added wealth to the City and provide jobs and security for all our citizens.

To contact David, please call 291206

Email david.smith@brighton-hove.gov.uk

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Tricky one. Savings need to be made and one could see this as a non-essential service in comparison to others. I don't know enough about where savings could be made to make a wholesome judgement. Could the history centre be 'privatised' and run by volunteers?

A decent start would be councillors personal expenses, I am sure.

 

[defrocked priest]

Signed Lord B.

 

[Fef]

Signed.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

OK, it's great that some people have signed a petition. Anyone going to contact David Smith directly? Might make more impact. If so, what are you going to say?

Something like....

"I'm a lifelong Tory who lives in your ward, and I will never vote for you or your party again if you allow the History Centre to close"

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Signed.

Hopefully we will have our own history centre at Falmer.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Signed.

 

[The Oldman]

done

 

[Jack Straw]

Signed.
This facility is absolutely priceless, and must never be allowed to disappear.
I've spent hours in there, and never not found anything I've looked for.
If you haven't been in this place, give it a go.
There's every single book, newspaper, whatever publication to do with Brighton in there.
You can go through all the old now defunct local newspapers, which are all on micro-film.
It was facinating finding my parents' wedding photo in the "Gazette".

 

[Pete and Sarah]

Done

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Done, I am lucky to have the Roundhill historal society in my area, but the Centre has
found me some fantastic photos in the past.

It is a shame only 27 have signed so far, may need to get a few more to save it.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Keep signing.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Get this.

It's going to take more than a few clicks on a poxy online petition to save the centre.
It's going to take some real action.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I support this and would also like to say it is yet another example of the Tory council's poor running of our city. Yes, you might have the headline banner of lowest council tax rise in recent years Mrs Mears BUT we want services. I'd rather pay the extra 1% and have the roads gritted (not boastful website promises of a state of the art process which in reality turned out to be little more the tardy re-deployment of bin men 2 days after the event and only when you realised there was rising anger regarding your inaction), I'd rather pay the extra 1% and have a history centre, I'd rather pay the extra 1% and not have businesses stitched up over their seafront rents (the very people who saved the area and some of the very people who tourists cite as a reason for visiting Brighton). And spunking 300-350k on the forced resignation of the chief exec was not a very good move was it?

If you tolerate this your country will be next!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Tricky one. Savings need to be made and one could see this as a non-essential service in comparison to others. I don't know enough about where savings could be made to make a wholesome judgement. Could the history centre be 'privatised' and run by volunteers?

A decent start would be councillors personal expenses, I am sure.

I'd rather pay that little bit extra to have a decent city with decent services. I was always brought up to pay that that little bit more and have quality. If savings need to be made then maybe we the public should make them? Cut back on our consumption and pay the extra 1% I refer to in my previous post. The amount of absolute and total shit I saw people buying before Xmas was flabbergasting.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Tricky one. Savings need to be made and one could see this as a non-essential service in comparison to others. I don't know enough about where savings could be made to make a wholesome judgement. Could the history centre be 'privatised' and run by volunteers?

A decent start would be councillors personal expenses, I am sure.

It is easy to underestimate the work involved in managing and developing a collection like this and it requires trained librarians/archivists. Much of the work goes on behind the scenes in selecting, cataloguing and seeking out material.

Getting private funding for any library or resource centre is challenging, I know as it is part of what I do. In this case a large number of the users will be private individuals (as opposed to companies) with limited budgets which will restrict the opportunities for making money. There may be some scope to look for sponsorship, but from my experience this is easier to find for exhibitions or from some kind of high profile online service based on digital images, sounds etc. it would be difficult to find a sponsor to meet some of the costs of running a centre. The only other option may be to look at pooling resources with local universities by using students etc., Brighton Uni are very keen to work on community-based projects.

Ultimately though, if you value your heritage and want future generations to understand how the city they live in grew to be what it is, you have to fund pay for most of it from the public purse.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Up to 31, still needs a few more people to tick the box.

Someone talked about resourse, I think it is only run part time, it holds a great amount of local books and documents. Great if you want to trace your family or local area of Brighton ad Sussex.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Another

Signatures now up to 166.

Add yours!

 

[Brovion]

Lord B is it true that the MILLIONS that the council rake in in car parking charges can only be used for transport initiatives and can't be treated as general revenue?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Lord B is it true that the MILLIONS that the council rake in in car parking charges can only be used for transport initiatives and can't be treated as general revenue?

Pretty much true. Although I think they are allowed to spend the revenue from off-street parking on non-transport things.