We get involved in various local, regional and national schemes and strategies to share our voice and ensure that active travel and the quality of our walking and wheeling environment is considered more often and always in all new planning and development strategies.
Plans for the future
Do get in touch if you would like to work with us on any of the issues below:
- Favourite walking routes. We have started to research some favourite walking routes around the city; routes that make walking a pleasure.
- Pavement obstructions. We are aware that pavement obstructions, from wheelie bins to pavement parking, make walking difficult. We plan to increase our work to tackle some of these problems.
- Trees and open spaces. Following our work to maintain access to the Royal Pavilion Gardens and Brighthelm Gardens, we would like to do more to ensure that the limited public spaces in our city remain open and accessible to all. Do let us know if there are spaces that you think would benefit from our input.
- Speeding traffic. There has been a significant reduction in casualties and deaths in Wales since the introduction of a 20mph speed limit on many roads (usually residential roads or busy pedestrian routes). We would like to put more energy into promoting a 20mph speed limit across central Brighton and Hove (with certain exceptions).
Current campaigns
Department for Transport Integrated Transport Strategy
- In February 2025, we attended an integrated transport strategy workshop in Brighton, as part of a wider roadshow.
- We had our say on how walking should be prioritised within plans for more active travel in the new national transport strategy.
- Next steps - the DfT will collate our input from the roadshow and review input from the 'a call for ideas' survey to draft an Integrated Transport Strategy for England.
City Plan 2041
- Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) is preparing a new City Plan which will set out the framework of planning policies to guide future development in the city up to 2041.
- We provided input to the key issues consultation in January 2025 (Link to City Plan Input).
- BHCC will hold a second public consultation towards during winter 2025/26 which we plan to consult on. We will let you know when this next stage becomes active and seek your views.
BHCC Marine Parade Bus Lane 2025
- BHCC plans for a cycle lane along Marine Parade were scrapped and replaced by a bus and cycle lane.
- We argue that this fails to adequately protect cyclists or pedestrians (because of cyclists on the pavement).
- The bus lane is experimental and is being monitored with our input.
BHCC Local Transport Plan 5 (LTP5)
- Initial consultations were held in 2021 on a revised LTP (Link to Local Transport Plan 5 Input)
- The latest discussions were at the BHCC Transport Partnership in December 2024.
- The next stage of the consultation is due in Spring 2025.
BHCC Active Travel Fund projects
- Early in 2021, BHCC gained national funding for improvements to active travel in four locations: Western Road, the seafront / A259, London Road / A23 and the Old Shoreham Road (Link to Active Travel Fund Input).
- The physical changes are still being implemented in 2025, and we continue to monitor progress.
Past campaigns
We've campaigned on many other BHCC plans and other issues over the years. Details of some of these are listed below.
- BT Communications hubs 2024. We opposed planning permission for the installation of three BT hubs on busy pavements in central Brighton: in Jubilee Street (Link to Jubilee St Input), West Street and Western Road. BHCC turned down the applications for permission but the company responsible appealed and we also provided evidence to the Planning Inspectorate opposing the Appeals on all three sites (Link to Jubilee St Appeals Input). Two appeals were dismissed, one was allowed. So only one of the three was installed. The photo (created by the North Laine Community Association) shows the proposed hub on Jubilee Street.
- Fencing Royal Pavilion Gardens. We opposed the fencing of the Gardens fencing with a report to the Royal Pavilion and Museum Trust (RPMT) in July 2023 (Link to RPMT Input) and objected to RPMT's planning application in December 2023 (Link to Dec 2023 Input). We objected to the fencing in principle and also the height of the proposed fencing (2.1 metres / 6ft 11 inches). The illustration below (by the North Laine Community Association) shows the imagined height of a human being as shown in the original planning application, and the actual height of an average human being. We also objected to the revised planning application in July 2024 (Link to July 2024 Input). BHCC granted planning permission for the railings, but refused permission for the gates that RPMT proposed on all entrances. We will continue to monitor this issue.
- Fencing Brighthelm Gardens. We opposed the planning application for fencing round the Gardens, and the closing of the route from North Street to Church Street in February 2024 (Link to Brighthelm Fencing Input). Permission was granted for the railings, but we continue to monitor the issue.
- Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). We supported the objectives of BHCC’s LTN strategy in April 2022, and in the pilot in Hanover in October 2022, but we did not support the approach being proposed to implementation (Link to LTN Strategy Input; Link to LTN Pilot Input)
- Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) 2022 (Link to LCWIP Input)
Please let us know about other developments where you think we should be campaigning.
Contact Us
If you want to get involved you can reach us at BrightonandHoveGroup@livingstreets.org.uk