The cleverly chosen and sinister words on the Brighton and Hove Council web site...

Paul Levy

Here are the cleverly chosen and sinister words on the Brighton and Hove Council web site: "The process of consultation is ongoing but there are no plans to lose the Pavilion Gardens Café as a service and we want it to stay. The current operators of the café are part of the ongoing consultation." Note the phrase: "as a service". This is classic council game playing. You'll notice they do not say they want the current beautiful 1930s building to stay, nor for the cafe and its patio to remain. Please also note that David Sewell owner of the cafe does not feel consulted. Last week, there were architects taking measurements on his patio, right in front of him and also people surveying his customers on behalf of the estate with no prior checking with him. Nice guy that he is, he stood by and let it happen. (We know how stressed this is all making him). The questions being asked are not asking if people like the current building and want it to stay. David administered his own questionnaire a while ago and over 95% wanted nothing to change. David is worried because there is history to council behaviour. It isn't the first time his cafe has been under threat. Jason Kitcat claims nothing has been decided and that the cafe is being involved in full consultation. Certainly the friends don't feel consulted. David feels nothing but fear. The meetings we have had with architects have shown little or nothing about the current cafe building but just about every public statement from the council and estate people on web sites, in emails and on twitter are full of the same carefully worded phrases: these hint at the cafe being moved from its current site, or in some way being changed in ways that would leave the current building radically altered. We are here on Facebook because we DON'T feel we have been consulted. We've also seen comment that somehow the current cafe isn't successful. Well, that isn't the view of its customers, nor the community around it. As regular users and (to use the popular phrase) "stakeholders", please let us know if you feel you have been consulted so far about the current cafe building and its lovely patio, the service offered by the Sewell family and whether it is a success or not. And please remember, some of these people who are assuring us are the same people who have driven through other changes in our city in the past. Please do not accept the claims that full consultation is taking place. It isn't.