Enough is enough! Do people really want to have another year like last year, with months of arguing and fighting while businesses and the voluntary sector are pitched against each other by the organisers of Pride?

It would appear that the present Trustees of Pride and the paid worker intend to continue in post following a year when much division has been created within both the gay business community and LGBT voluntary sector.

The time has come to consider what the real problems of Pride are:

• Pride lacks transparency and has a problem communicating with local businesses which has stopped local LGBT businesses who want to help Pride, staging fundraisers for the organisation.

• Some businesses report they have problems working with the paid worker of Pride.

• New trustees are being recruited and interviewed by the very trustees responsible for last years chaos and bad feeling. Is this really a good start?

• The City Council have refused Pride’s request for scrutiny. How can Pride expect people to put money in the buckets at fundraisers when many of the concerns from the last 12 months remain unaddressed especially with regard to Pride’s tendering process.

Despite Pride’s claims that this was the biggest and best Pride ever, it is now becoming clear that behind the scenes it was chaos on the day and all statutory partners have made it clear that Pride will NOT be able to stage a similar event on Preston Park next year.

In two years we have gone from having the best organised Pride in the country to this year’s event which had the East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service (ESFRS) saying in minutes taken from the City Council's debrief of the event and circulated by mistake by Pride;

“East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service will not accept a poorly managed event in the future irrespective of the community it represents. PRIDE needs to consider whether the event has outgrown the park, or whether the capacity in the tents can be managed, if not then PRIDE needs to consider if tents are appropriate. ESFRS will discuss with Sussex Police the potential need for conditions to be placed
on the license.”

We need people to rally behind a new organisation which has at it’s heart the interests of the LGBT voluntary sector in Brighton & Hove. A real “Gay Pride”.

Pride is failing to meets its charitable objectives. We will not be supporting any fundraising for Pride until we know what Pride’s current trading position is, verified by an independent accountant.

We will support any community organisation that chooses to reclaim Pride as a community event, set up to benefit local voluntary sector organisations and most importantly of all can bring everyone to work together rather than work against each other, which happens at the moment.

We support the concept of Pride but can no longer support the present regime and want to see it replaced by an organisation committed to raising money for our local gay voluntary sector organisations.

Neither The Amsterdam or Legends Hotel have contracts with Pride nor have sought to engage in any contract that gives us financial gain.

We want to see an event organised by people who have the support of the community, local LGBT businesses and LGBT voluntary organisations.

This is not the case at the moment.

Tony Chapman owner of Legends Hotel and
David Calderhead owner of The Amsterdam Hotel

Supported by
Steve Chillingworth owner of The Marine Tavern
Maria Baker owner of The Star Inn
Andy Tull owner of 112 Church Street