Elder place improvement.
Since this was first raised at the LAT meeting December 2012 the project has gained considerable momentum, and the street art project headed-up by Charlie Rallings will be on show as part of the fringe festival May 2014. The unfolding story is told below.
Random thought: maybe one day we might even see this!
Location
Elder Place falls between London Road and New England Street. It joins Providence Place running from Providence Gardens/St Bartholomews Church in the south to Circus Parade/Preston Circus in the north.
The site plan above has been extracted from the council London Road Central Masterplan Document and shows Elder/Providence Place in brown encircled by a dotted line. The key to this plan identifies this marking as representing an area with “poor streetscape layout and maintenance which helps to encourage a range of antisocial behaviour and criminal activities to take place”.
History
In January 2013, a trader based at a London Road property which backed onto Elder Place attended the LAT meeting concerned about the presentation of Elder Place and the activities which took place on the street – most specifically the level of unlawful graffiti, and the LAT agreed to look further into the issues and opportunities on this street to see if anything could be done to improve matters.
Subsequently five monthly meetings took place involving traders, local residents, police, council officers and ward councillors, and notes from these are available via the Elder Place button on the menu bar above.
Bike Cam View – the above video shot from bicycle handlebars, follows the route from Providence Park to Circus Parade.
Action Plan (From the February 2013 meeting)
currently is just the list of things we have previously discussed listed in no particular order below.
- Various measures for deterrence (N.B. warning notice at Tarnerland),
- quick removal of offending pieces,police activity (? apprehending someone
- making the area look cared-for
- small scale CCTV + motion detecting lighting
- active frontages
- adding greenery/green spaces
- better lighting – possibly using video/still projection
- ,joining up various initiatives(e.g. Prov Place gardens)
- education (e.g. enlisting help of St Bart’s???),
- individuals working individually and together,
- reducing number of empty properties (c.f. Portas),
- resource room with cleaning materials and paint,
- mobilising community-payback resources
- encouraging reporting of incidents,
- commissioning new pieces …
Following the last meeting in June, we are initially focusing on two issues:
- Street Trading: We are working with Street Diner (who run the street food Friday market at Brighthelm Gardens) to explore the potential of introducing street trading to Elder Place.
- Graffiti: We are putting together a proposal which will seek to address the negative impact of tagging and graffiti placed on property against the wishes of the owners, and will consider appropriate locations for formal street art pieces.
Both of these pieces of work are at an early stage and we would welcome any input and support. Please contact us if you would like more information.
Update – October 2013
Charlie Rallings gave an inspirational presentation to the LAT meeting in October 2013 on how to tackle the Graffiti issue.
You can relive it with the link below:
Update May 2014
With grant money some imaginative and lively murals have been taking shape along the area. They are the subject of a special exhibit in the Brighton Fringe festival 2014. What a success for a LAT initiative!
Thanks to all partners involved in making a difference.
London Road Area Local Action Team 