menu

End of an era at Marine Tavern

Steve Chillingworth and Nat Robinson, landlords at the Marine Tavern for the last 12 years said goodbye to their regulars this evening, Sunday 10.

Marine Tavern

Drag with No Name provided the entertainment while friends and customers from over the years turned out in force to wish the popular couple well for the future.

Under Steve and Nat’s stewardship the Marine Tavern has been one of the largest fundraising bars in the gay village consistantly punching above its weight and raising thousands of pounds for local organisations both straight and gay.

They were recognised for their fundraising efforts at this years Golden Handbag Award receiving the coveted Golden Handbag fundraising award.

They are now both going on a well deserved holiday to San Francisco and will be attending Pride in Palm Springs.

Steve wished the couple taking over the Marine Tavern tomorrow all the best for the future.

When they received the 2013-14 Golden Handbag for fundraising at the Metropole Hilton in June, James Ledward, editor of Gscene said: “Some businesses in the community have become great fundraisers. Some to be honest are very poor.

“Some operators get it while others just don’t understand there is a link between quiet bars and community perceptions that the business sector do not support our voluntary sector organisations enough with fundraising.

“Tonight I am going to recognise two people who do get it.

“They beaver away tirelessly throughout the year raising money for many different organisations, putting many larger venues to shame.

“They don’t do big fundraisers but focus on raising small amounts of money 52 weeks of the year.

“I have done this job for 20 years and can honestly say that in my experience they have been the most effective fundraisers we have in Gay Brighton.

“They are a tiny venue, punching well above their weight and the owners will be moving on to other projects after Pride in August.

“The Gscene fundraising award for 2014 goes to Steve Chillingworth and his partner Nat Robinson at the Marine Tavern.”

 

 

 

PREVIEW: Poet in the City – Cavafy Event

Poet in the City, the charity committed to attracting new audiences to poetry, will present a celebration of the life and work of C.P. Cavafy at Hall One, Kings Place in London on Monday, September 15 at 7pm.

Poet in the City

Cavafy is widely regarded as one of the most important poets of the modern age.

Poet and translator David Constantine will be joined by author and poet Louis de Bernières, and leading historian Edith Hall, in an event that will explore the influences of this unique poetic voice, unpicking some of the fascinating themes arising in his poetry, from the erotic to the historic.

What: Celebration of the life and work of C.P. Cavafy

Where: Hall One at Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG.

When: Monday, September 15 at 7pm.

Cost: Tickets £9.50 if booked online: www.kingsplace.co.uk

Otherwise £11.50 at the
 Box Office.

 

Union chief expresses concerns following Eastbourne pier fire

Following the fire that gutted the historic pier in Eastbourne last month, Simon Herbert, Chairman of the East Sussex Fire Brigades Union has issued an extensive statement highlighting his concerns about the ability of the fire service to cope with such incidents in the future.

Simon Herbert, Chairman of East Sussex Fire Brigade Union
Simon Herbert, Chairman of East Sussex Fire Brigade Union

In his statement Simon said: “Following recent significant incidents that East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service have dealt with I am concerned that the Chief Fire Officer’s proposed cuts, voted through by East Sussex Fire Authority will leave the Service unable to robustly cope in the future with major incidents, spate (sporadic extreme and critical) conditions, road traffic accidents and multiple emergencies at any one given time.

“Firefighters worked extremely hard to bring the very serious Eastbourne pier fire under control so quickly and to save a large part of the pier is a testament to their hard work; especially in the initial stages of the incident.

“At any fire the initial attendance is critical, the speed with which that attendance arrives is crucial but so is the weight of the response, ie how many firefighters arrive with the correct equipment.

“In order to make a positive difference at any emergency incident the response from the Fire Service must inculde the correct speed and weight of attendance.

“This begs the question as to whether the Councillors who voted through massive Service changing cuts to East Sussex Fire Service in June (only Labour and Green voted against cuts) actually understand the relationship that speed and weight of attendance has on the outcome at a fire or other incident.

“They voted to remove a pumping appliance from the City of Brighton & Hove, they also voted to change the shift pattern at Roedean and the Ridge in Hastings (a total of 80 firefighters will be cut). Removing an appliance would leave the City with just 4 appliances, potentially with just 16 firefighters crewing them. The change in shift system at the Ridge and Roedean will increase attendance times at night, due to firefighters being housed in accomodation blocks. They will not respond immediately as they currently do.

“With the recent fire on Eastbourne Pier and also looking to the other pier fires that the south has suffered it shows that cutting the Fire Service to save money is a false economy. The business and financial losses to the tourism industries far outweigh any of the savings that are being made through fire service cuts. Fire already costs local businesses over £6m a year. Tourism generates over £704m each year, any increase in the severity of fire will massively increase costs to local businesses and negatively impact tourism income.

“When an appliance is removed from the City, there will be insufficient appliances available day or night to deal with even a small fire on the Pier. In order to tackle an incident on the pier, resources would need to be brought in from neighbouring conurbations, delaying the work to carry out rescues and extinguish fire. This will lead to a more severe fire, with far more damage and a far greater cost to society and buisnesses. The knock on effect must not be underestimated.

“This not only applies to a fire on a pier, but also any fire in the City. Fires will burn for longer, damage will be worse and public will at greater risk. Not to mention that firefighters being put at greater risk, by having insufficient numbers to deal with incidents.

“In the last week we have seen spate conditions that caused major flooding, again professionally dealt with by the Service and firefighters. However, these conditions stretched the Service to its limits. Had these cuts been in place then it would have taken the Service past breaking point in my opinion. With the change to our climate, such spate conditions may become a far more regular occurance, the Service managers and Fire Authority members appear not to have planned for such changes when voting through cuts to the Service.

“I would urge the Fire Authority to instruct the Chief Fire Officicer at their next meeting in September to put public safety first, to stop with the false economy of fire service cuts. Savings can be made if necessary without cutting frontline firefighters.

“The fire on Eastbourne Pier showed the whole nation how valuable our firefighters are, once they are gone it will be too late.”

 

Simon Herbert

New report condemns chugging

A new report conducted by Charity Aid, who represent volunteer fundraisers, has found that chugging (short for charity mugging), the practice by paid professionals of stopping people in the street to ask for charity donations, is the worst and most damaging form of charity fundraising there has ever been.

Chuggers

Charity Aid asked every council in the country about chugging and the responses revealed that many councils regard chugging as “aggressive harassment” of the public. They want to ban it but the government doesn’t.

Peter Quinn, Charity Aid’s chairman, said: “Chuggers now siphon off more than the first £100 of a donor’s money – without telling them this. These parasites now take over £100m a year from donations which were intended for charity.

“They’ve brought words like intimidation and hard sell into what used to be a noble calling. Volunteer groups are unanimous in opposing it and some have disbanded in protest.”

For more information about Charity Aid, CLICK HERE:

X