Five Things We Learned About Brighton This Week

Stinking seafront, drugs problems and a manager-less football team - apart from that, life is good on the city by the sea

Five Things We Learned About Brighton This Week

Success stinks

Brighton is the most popular seaside destination in the UK. The city-by-the-sea attracted 409,000 visitors in 2013 - an increase of more than than 50,000 on the year before. According to the survey from the Office for National Statistics Brighton and Hove is the eighth most popular town or city for tourists in the UK.

Sadly, most people don't take their rubbish with their memories when they depart,

On the first weekend of July 2013 , seafront refuse collectors picked up more than 90 tonnes worth of litter which, according to the council, weighs the same as 20,000 deck chairs. It also smells a whole lot worse. Nappies, beer cans, plastic bags, a portable barbecue or two and the odd item of furniture are among the garbage left festering on the beach.

On May 27, the city council and local businesses and residents will do their bit in what has been dubbed the "Big Beach Clean-Up". Get yourself to the Palace Pier by 8.30am.

A week is a long time in football

On Monday Brighton and Hove Albion accepted the resignation of the head coach, Oscar García.

By Friday, he was ancient history.

At the end of the season, the Championship club's play-off promotion hopes were crushed by Derby County's 4-1 pummeling at the iPro Stadium on Sunday - Albion lost the tie 6-2 on aggregate.

But talk has already moved on to the subject of OG's successor. Tim Sherwood is the bookies' favourite for the job following his abrupt exit from Tottenham Hotspur.

Albion chairman Tony Bloom said he is no hurry to make a decision.

The city is home to a container village

The 36-container scheme , in Richardson's Yard off New England Road, is the brainchild of Ross Gilbert, boss at Brighton-based developer QED Estates, and is the largest of its kind in the country.

According to Vice magazine, the place is a rusty ghetto where formerly homeless people are ripped off to the tune of £650 a month.

Reporter James Rippingale claimed he snuck into the area to spend a night in a container after journalists were barred from entry. This struck me as odd as I also spent a night there back in December.

His article drew a swift response from Any Winter, chief executive at Brighton Housing Trust.

He wrote: "I was more saddened by the article than angry. It took a number of cheap shots based on a lack of research, inaccuracies and sensational reporting. The article was right to highlight the chronic housing shortage in Brighton and Hove, but did not recognise the small yet positive contribution this housing scheme is making."

Meanwhile, in temporary accommodation in the city, vulnerable people are dying in squalid conditions.

Figures obtained from the council reveal that in the last five years there have been six deaths in accommodation for homeless people in the city.

One death recorded was recorded in 17/19 Grand Parade on July 19 2011. Five deaths were recorded at the West Pier Project in Regency Square, on 14 November 2010, 28 November 2010, 7 October 2012, 12 September 2012 and 31 May 2013.

The causes of death were given as alcohol-respiratory arrest; ruptured oesophageal varices- blood loss; perforated ulcer; heart attack; and heroin, alcohol and benzodiazepine use.

Screen drama at UK's oldest movie house

The Duke of York's Picture House in Brighton is the nation's longest continually operating cinema.

It opened its doors in 1910 and is much loved by Brighton's bien-pensant progressives,

Its clientele like to think of themselves as informed and intelligent, queuing up to watch the latest Chilean documentary about astronomy and torture.

Bosses at the movie house take a less enlightened line and refuse to pay their workers a decent wage.

In December 2012 Cineworld snapped up Picturehouse, in a £47.3 million deal.

According to Bectu, the media and entertainment union, Cineworld's trading figures showed a significant increase in revenue over the four months to the end of March 2014.

It said box office income was up 6.8% compared with 2013, and retails sales, which account for about a quarter of all revenues, was up by 8.2%.

Gabriel Swartland, head of marketing and PR at Picturehouse, told me: "We don't currently pay a base wage matching the Living Wage. We have weekly bonus schemes and sales schemes that mean our staff can earn in excess of the Living Wage."

No room for drug users

Plans to open up public rooms where addicts could inject drugs were binned this week.

The controversial drug consumption rooms (DCR) policy was considered by the Independent Drugs Commission for Brighton and Hove.

The commission said that more than 2,000 people are considered problem heroin and cocaine users and that more than 60,000 people in the city have used illegal drugs.

Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne said the so called "shooting galleries", would mean the police had to turn a blind eye to people carrying class A drugs in the city.

Instead, plans will be implemented to administer overdose antidotes and more services will be provided for people who have mental health and drug problems.