Queens Park Living March 2015 by Sussex Magazines

ueens Park Living March 2015 Edition I 01273 551021 I www.queensparkliving.co.uk

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Welcome...

Welcome to the March edition of Queens Park Living!

What an uplifting time of the year Spring is! The days are not only getting longer but generally they are also getting warmer and also towards the end of March we change the clocks and suddenly all those long months of winter start to become a distant memory! Combine that with all the new growth bursting open all around us and Spring is definitely a season to enjoy! We also hope you find some items of interest in this month’s edition of Queens Park Living. We have some new features for you as well as the old faithfuls so please spend a moment to have a flick through and see what you find. Here are some March dates for your diary…

Sunday March 1st- St. David’s Day, Sunday March 15th – Mother’s Day, Tuesday March 17 - St Patrick’s Day, Friday March 20th - March equinox, Sunday March 29th - Palm Sunday , Sunday March 29th - Daylight Saving Time starts/ Clocks change Have a great month. Queens Park Living

info@queensparkliving.co.uk www.queensparkliving.co.uk

Photo credit: front cover by Lisa Holdcraoft

Contents Page 4/5 Old Photo Page 7 Salt in the Pepperpot Page 9 ABBA Gold Page 1 Party Houses Page 13 Queen’s Park Page 13 Doggy Column Page 14 List of Advertisers

Publisher: Sussex Magazines 10 Hollingbury Road, Brighton BN1 7JA info@queensparkliving.co.uk Printer: Gemini printers Distributors: Mandy Distribution

The views expressed by individuals in any letter or article included at the discretion of the publishers are not necessarily the views of the Editor. Whilst every care has been taken in compiling this magazine and the statements contained herein are believed to be correct, the publishers of this publication will not hold themselves responsible for any inaccuracies. Inclusion of advertisers in this magazine is not necessarily a recommendation but we do hope they give a good quality service. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and contributors We take complaints you make about our advertisers seriously. We have the following policy on this: First complaint about an advertiser is logged here in our offices, if we receive another complaint we write to the advertiser concerned and notify them we have had two complaints and if we receive another complaint we will no longer accept their adverts. If and when a third complaint arrives we will verify that all complaints received were genuine and inform the advertiser that we will no longer be promoting their business and inform them why.

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Old Photo...

Thanks to the Regency Society for this image from their photographic archives, The James Gray Collection. You can see thousands of more historic pictures of Brighton and Hove at www.regencysociety-jamesgray.com

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Queen’s Park

This photograph was taken in 1897. The buildings seen are the backs of houses in Queen’s Park Road, as the building of West Drive did not commence until 1900/01. Originally known as the German Spa, the park was purchased by the Brighton Race Stand Trustees and presented to the Brighton Corporation in July 1890. Alterations to the layout of the park led to the removal of the island shrubbery during the 1930s.

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CARE IN YOUR HOME Everybody would like to stay living in their own home leading an independent life, sometimes it gets a little difficult but with help and support it can be possible. Pavilion Care is a small family run business offering compassionate care services with 25 years experience, with extensive experience of Dementia/Alzheimer’s support. Being a small family company we really can provide you with the best possible compassionate care, where nothing will be too much trouble, with continuity of carers. All of which are hand picked and fully trained. Our services include: • Administering Medication • Housekeeping • Laundry • Companionship • Help with getting up and going to bed

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Contact us on 01273 921603 Unit 32 The Octagon, Waterfront, Brighton Marina, Brighton BN2 5WA www.pavilioncare.co.uk To advertise e-mail info@queensparkliving.co.uk or call 01273 551021

Local Event...

An update on events at the Pepperpot……

Who put salt in the Pepperpot? Residents in Queen’s Park and Hanover prepared for winter weather in their own unique way – by adding salt to the Pepperpot! The Queen’s Park Local Action Team and their counter-parts in Hanover have been working with Brighton & Hove City Council to provide equipment to spread salt, clear snow and provide safer routes to shops, surgeries and sheltered housing as part of their local community resilience plan. Supplies of snow-clearing equipment and salt are being stored in the Pepperpot Tower on Queen’s Park Road. In the event of snow, volunteers from the Friends of the Pepperpot will open the tower and give out equipment to residents to use in clearing key areas. After the priority work has been done, residents will be able to borrow shovels to help clear their own street, or other locations important to them. Cllr Geoffrey Bowden, chair of the Queen’s Park Local Action Team, said: “When snow falls, it’s important that residents have the necessary equipment on hand to support their neighbours and what better place to store salt than in the Pepperpot! “I’m delighted that the council is supporting residents who are keen to muck in and help the more vulnerable members of our community in this way. Although many of us enjoy a wintry spell, it’s important to remember that for many of our residents, heavy snow can be a big problem, and for the more vulnerable in our community, the impact can be substantial.” He added that key locations to be cleared following snowfall include the area around the doctor’s surgery and chemist, some local shops, bus stops, and entry paths or steps to sheltered housing or estate areas. During severe weather, Queen’s Park and Hanover residents can find information about the initiative and real time updates online, using Local Action Team and local community websites and social media channels.

Domestic Ovens Cleaned

For more information, visit the Queen’s Park Local Action Team website at www.qplat.wordpress.com Friends of the Pepperpot Pepperpot: Sunday 8th March 10:00 - 13.00 The Friends of the Pepperpot will be doing more work to brighten up the buildings and garden area around the Pepperpot. Spring cleaning, weeding, litter picking, painting, pruning, jet washing and having tea and cake. Everything provided! Everyone welcome! Check us out on Facebook!

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Landlords! We want your properties Guaranteed rents for landlords with no commission, or management and renewal fees. Up to ÂŁ63,000 over five years* For further information, please call 01273 292213 or 292164 or email guaranteedrents@brighton-hove.gov.uk

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Local Event...

ABBA Gold Competition Abba Gold are one of Europe’s finest tribute bands and have toured all over the world. They are coming to Brighton & Hove for one day only and will be performing two shows in an amazing venue at All Saints Church in The Drive, Hove, which has superb acoustics.

They will be performing on a full-size stage with an amazing light show, and there will be plenty of room to jig and dance in the aisles. The audience can join in and sing along to all the well-known Abba songs. All the costumes have been meticulously recreated and the show includes a minimum of eight costume changes. Abba Gold have their own sound engineers with them to re-create that special Abba sound.

The shows are on Saturday 11th April, with a matinee at 2.30pm and an evening show at 8pm. Tickets cost between £10 and £22. You can book online through the website, www.abbagoldbrighton. com, or phone the box office on 01273 565130. Don’t leave booking too late, as tickets are limited. COMPETITION: We have one prize of four tickets to give away. To enter, answer the following question: In which year did Abba win the Eurovision Song Contest at the Brighton Dome? Email your answer to info@queensparkliving.co.uk with a phone number, or post your answer, name, address and phone number to Abba Gold competition, Sussex Magazines, 10 Hollingbury Road, Brighton BN1 7JA. The winner will be selected at random after the closing date. Competition Terms & Conditions:

Tickets are valid to see Abba Gold at All Saints Church on 11th April only and are non-exchangeable. The closing date for entries is 15th March; entries received after this date will not be counted. Any travel and accommodation will not be included in the prize.

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experience the extraordinary at the Royal Pavilion Membership from as little as £20 will give you: • FREE entry to the Royal Pavilion & Museums • Exclusive events programme • Discounts in Museum and Royal Pavilion shops & cafes • A FREE after hours tour of the Royal Pavilion!

Become a member today! visit pavilionfoundation.org or call 01273 295898

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Local Group...

The Queen’s Park Local Action Team has been looking at the issue of party houses…

Short–Term Holiday lets in Queen’s Park or Party Houses to You and Me When asked to take over as chair of Queen’s Park’s Local Action Team (LAT), the knotty problem of ‘party houses’ - shorthand media-speak for short-term holiday lets – immediately raised its head, writes Cllr Geoffrey Bowden. Party Houses are lucrative businesses catering for hen and stag groups visiting our city to have a prenuptials knees-up. A significant number operate in the Queen’s Park area – some streets and mews have as many as four. For owners letting their properties to groups of 10 or more people, it’s good business. Visit any website targeted at hen and stag parties and start making a booking. By the time you’ve added in-the-buff butlers, hairdos, manicures and pre-outing cocktails, you can quickly clock up a £5,000 weekend bill. It’s all good healthy fun, but for the neighbours in residential areas it ain’t a barrel of laughs. Judging by all the incidents of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) reported by Queen’s Park residents at the LAT meetings, living next door to a ‘party house’ can be a living hell.

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An objective of any LAT is addressing issues of crime and disorder, including ASB. However, in raising the impact hen and stag lets are having on local communities with council officers, it appeared to be no one’s particular bailiwick, whether I knocked on the door of planning, environmental health, licensing, community safety or even the police. The only glimmer of hope came from East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, which has been using its powers to inspect properties and close any posing a fire risk. The ‘party house’ phenomenon is not restricted to Queen’s Park. You can find them across the city, which is why I pushed for and got a cross-party Scrutiny panel to address the issue. For my sins I was asked to chair it! A cross-party Scrutiny inquiry shining a light on the short-term holiday lets market immediately prompted owners to form a trade association, the Brighton and Hove Holiday Rental Association1, with the aim of establishing a gold standard and self-regulation of the market. BHRA has drawn up practical wide-ranging guidelines, that it recommends that serious operators take into account when offering their properties to groups of over 10 people. However, citywide BHRA members are only responsible for about 100 properties. There are many more, which it hopes to influence. The BHRA’s gold standard is a good start, but the Scrutiny panel made its own ‘good neighbourly’ recommendations2, which it wants operators to implement too. The onus is now on the market to transparently review operations and report back in six months’ time. If self-regulation isn’t working the council has reserved the right to review the arrangements and bring the monitoring in-house. 1 http://www.brightonholidayrentals.org 2 www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sites/brighton-hove. gov.uk/files/shorttermletsFINALreport.pdf

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Queen’s Park... An update from the Friends of Queen’s Park...

We Need Your Help, Say The Friends of Queen’s Park The Friends Of Queen’s Park host major events throughout the year, all made possible by several hundred hours of volunteer work. We need your help to maintain and improve the service we provide to the local community. Can you offer a couple of hours, half a day, or a whole day, for any of these events? Bark In The Park: Sunday 14 June Picnic In The Park [inc Great Brighton Bake Off]: Sunday 28 June We also need your help with environmental projects in the park, including pond clearance, Wild Park clean-up, litter picking etc. As well as feet on the ground, any ‘off park’ expertise is highly valued. Do you have experience in the areas of fundraising, law, media, design, or event organisation? Perhaps you have our own ideas of how to improve Queen’s Park? It is our experience that volunteers get as much out as they put in. “It’s the camaraderie of the community events that I love the most,” says Johnny Webb, chair

of The Friends Of Queen’s Park. “Putting something back into your local area, meeting new people and having a laugh at the same time - you can’t beat it!” Whatever you can offer, whatever your age or experience, please get in touch with us via the website or Facebook or Twitter or info@friendsofqueensparkbrighton.net. Thank you. - Conrad Brunner

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Doggy Column...

The latest in the series of articles for local dog owners...

New Tricks for Old Dogs

We’ve been researching some new things to keep our 10-year-old boxer, Harvey, mentally stimulated. His legs get stiff so he can’t chase and play like he used to. We often have to shout for him to hear us. (He almost always hears ‘dinner’, however.) When dogs slow down they can easily become bored, which in turn can cause other issues including grumpiness, lower tolerance of other dogs and humans, destructive behaviour, loss of appetite or even doggie depression. It can be tempting to ply less mobile dogs with edibles to allay boredom, but obesity will just make the problem worse. Old age can make physical tricks like jumping or extended sitting difficult or painful. Dogs with hearing or sight problems can also struggle to understand what they are being asked to do. When considering new tricks to keep your dog’s mind active, it’s really

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So you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Think again. Apparently this old saying is, on the whole, a load of tosh because teaching our older dogs new tricks is exactly what we should be doing!

important to understand your dog’s limitations. We’ve discovered that hand signals, especially used in conjunction with your voice or claps, can open up a new world of learning for a dog with deteriorating hearing, and teaching a dog to use his voice and eyes can be a great alternative to the usual sit, lie, paw and so on. Harvey is happy to keep eye contact for a minute or more for a morsel of his kibble dinner and can now balance his furry frog on his head indefinitely. We’ve also learnt to be a bit creative and view the world through a senior dog’s senses: • Sense of smell may be reduced so go for stronger scents when food training • Use a firm surface if your dog will be moving about. Carpet good, smooth floors not so • Claps cause vibrations – even ‘fully’ deaf dogs can respond to close claps • Strategic, gentle touches and taps work well for dogs with sight problems. It takes three to four weeks of repetition for something to become a habit, so include several short training sessions every day for about a month whenever you are teaching a new trick. I’ve ordered a book on tricks for dogs young and old, recommended by a dog-walking colleague – “101 Dog Tricks” by Kyra Sundance. I’ll report back on how we all get on! Billie-Jo runs Furry Friends Pet Services with her husband Sam and lives in Hendon Street with dogs Harvey and Mouse. www.furryfriendspetservices.co.uk

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At your service...

After School Club Tarnerland.................................................................................10 Artist Lisa Holdcroft...........................................................................12 Blacksmiths Anvil Ironworks................................................................ .......14 Building Services Hanover Building Solutions.....................................................4 Dance Lessons Love Dance..................................................................................7 Estate Agent Bonett’s.................................................................................Cover Education Royal Spa School.......................................................................15 Event ABBA Gold..................................................................................9 Singing for pleasure...................................................................3 Firewood The Logman..............................................................................11 Health Pavilion Care...............................................................................6 Nicky’s Yoga................................................................................9 JW Yoga.....................................................................................14 Landlords Required Acquisitions Landlords............................................................ 8

Local Attraction The Royal Pavilion...................................................................10 Locksmiths Lee’s Locks...................................................................................4 Loft Ladders More Than Loft Ladders...........................................................8 Market The Open Market ......................................................................3 Newsagents Videostar.......................................................................................5 Oven Cleaner Dirty Ovens..................................................................................7 Painting and Decorating Teamology...................................................................................13 Pharmacy O’Flinns.........................................................................................6 Printers Genie Design & Print..............................................................16 Public House The Round Georges.................................................................10

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Hilly Laine..................................................................................10 Will Writing Thy Will be Done...................................................................... 2

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