Hove Beach Park Claim Criticised In Councillor Tete-A-Tete

The opening of a new park in Hove was heralded as “the first in 100 years” but critics soon came forward to challenge the claim.

Hove Beach Park was officially opened on Friday 15 May, with great fanfare by Brighton and Hove City Council leader Bella Sankey, heralding a weekend of free activities.

In a statement celebrating the new park along Hove seafront, Councillor Sankey said:

“I am extremely proud and excited to be formally opening the first new park in the city in more than 100 years.”

The council has admitted the error after Elm Grove resident and Green Party campaigner Luke Walker said that at least four other parks in Brighton and Hove were less than 100 years old.

Dr Walker said:

“Bella Sankey is very eager to claim credit for Hove Beach Park, wilfully ignoring the fact that it was the former Green administration who successfully developed and bid for government funding for the project in 2021.

“In fact, she’s so desperate for publicity that she’s now making the ridiculous claim that this is ‘the first new park in the city in more than 100 years’.

“This claim shows Sankey’s ignorance of the history and geography of Brighton and Hove.

"Many of the city’s parks are under 100 years old: Carden, Withdean and Easthill parks, in the north and west of the city, were all opened in the mid-twentieth century.

“But Sankey’s claim falls apart most obviously in the case of William Clarke Park, aka the Patch, which opened in the 1980s.

“Residents of Elm Grove, where I live, are shocked that the council leader seems to know so little about this area, so close to the city centre.

“I’m also surprised that Hanover and Elm Grove’s Labour councillors didn’t think to correct her, especially since William Clarke Park is named after a former Labour councillor and mayor of Brighton.

“It seems that, in their eagerness to follow their leader, the current Labour councillors are also prepared to forget the history of their own party.”

William Clarke Park was formed from a filled in former railway cutting on the now defunct Kemp Town branch railway line.

Brighton Corporation bought farmland that became Withdean Park in 1933.

Portslade Urban District council bought the Easthill House estate land which became Easthill Park in 1948.

Carden Park, in Hollingbury, was created in the 1950s although part of it was lost to the expansion of a factory on the industrial estate in the 1960s.

In response, Councillor Sankey said:

“Hove Beach Park is most definitely a park. It has transformed an unloved and neglected area of our seafront and has been one of the most popular council projects in decades.

"The feedback we have received has been absolutely fantastic.

“Going back over our historic records again since the official opening, we have found a number of parks which have had their status formally recognised or had work done to transform unloved space into something the community can enjoy within the last 100 years. This was an oversight on our part.

“But while Hove Beach Park may not be the first new park in the city for a century, it is certainly among the most ambitious, creative and transformative projects in that time and one the entire city is rightfully proud of.”

The £13.7 million Hove Beach Park was initially known as the Kingsway to the Sea project. The work was part-funded by a £9.4 million grant from the government.