Celebrity Support for the Barking Mad Campaign

A group of dog lovers from Brighton & Hove have set up an online petition in opposition to plans to ban their dogs from the city’s beaches and other open spaces. The petition that was only started 10 days ago, now has over 800 signatories including local celebrity Zoe Ball, Celia Barlow MP (Hove & Portslade), Caroline Lucas MEP and twelve of the city’s councillors.

Read the full Brighton Magazine story here.

Plastic Bag Free Week

March 1- 8 is plastic bag free week in Brighton and Hove and the council is hoping that shoppers will use environmentally friendly reusable bags instead of the free ones given out by the supermarkets.
With the ongoing rubbish problems in Brighton this can only be a good thing and just requires a shift in our shopping habits to make the difference...I've started to always keep a reusable cotton bag in my work bag so when I stop at the shops on the way home I don't have to use a plastic one. It's a simple small effort that could make a huge difference if everyone did the same.

More information on Plastic Bag Free Week:

Plastic Bag Free Brighton
Transition Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove Council

Mother's Day Gift Campaign

Maternity Worldwide are running a Mother’s Day campaign to encourage individuals to buy their mum an alternative Mother’s Day gift.

Rather than another box of chocolates or bunch of flowers they are suggesting that they celebrate Mothers Day by sponsoring a safe birth?

It costs only £15 to provide a safe delivery in Gimbie - Ethiopia.

In return for this sponsorship Maternity Worldwide send Mum a personalised gift certificate.

In addition to an innovative on-line campaign we will be raising awareness of the issues of maternal death overseas and selling the alternative gift at a number of locations in Brighton in the week running up to Mother’s Day.

Read the full Brighton.co.uk Magazine article here.

Barking Mad Brighton and Hove

Brighton and Hove Council will be banning dogs from all beaches between April and September and this also includes the promenade and undercliff walk.

It seems reasonable to keep beaches dog free in the main tourist areas, most responsible dog owners probably agree with this and wouldn't take their dogs to those busy areas anyway. But is banning dogs from all beaches going a bit far when there are far more important matters to focus on in Brighton and Hove, such as the ongoing waste management problem (today there is a hideous amount of smelly rubbish strewn all over the street outside the brighton.co.uk office)?

I can't remember the last time, if ever, I stepped in dog poo on Brighton Beach but I have stepped in: broken glass, rotting food, sat accidentally in black ashes from bonfires, and almost stepped on a upwardly pointed used needle - with bare feet. Will banning dogs from all beaches make them safer and cleaner?

Sign the online petition

See Karl Lester's Barking Mad Campaign for more details.

Brighton and Hove to be swept away?

We were rather bemused in the brighton.co.uk office to hear Gordon Brown's pronouncement that Brighton and Hove will be swept away in the not too distant future. Does he mean that global warming is Brighton and Hove's fault? How can this be?

• We all recycle don't we?
  
• We all shop at Infinity foods/have an allotment/get our vegetable boxes delivered from local farms and we certainly wouldn't be seen dead with a plastic bag.
• Our council is the largest authority supporting a voluntary ban on plastic bags.
• Our new Jubilee library is one of the most energy efficient public buildings in the country.
• The Forum for the Future's Sustainable Cities Index reported Brighton and Hove as the most sustainable city in the Britain.

What more can we do?