\n Brighton and Hove City Council\u2019s cabinet yesterday approved a five-year project to use the former swimming pool site for sports and leisure \u2013 with padel courts the preferred option \u2013 when they met at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 15 October).\n<\/p>\n
\n But deputy leader Jacob Taylor said the long term ambition was to find a partner to make an art gallery there a reality.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brighton and Hove City Council seafront prospectus (Image: Brighton and Hove City Council)\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cBlack Rock has waited long enough.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAt the heart of what we\u2019re exploring is the potential of creating a nationally or internationally significant cultural destination, ie a major visual art gallery.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhat\u2019s worth noting is that Brighton is one of the country\u2019s creative cities. We have amazing artists who live in the city, an amazing festival annually, amazing architecture and art being produced, but we don\u2019t have a major visual arts gallery.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite unusual. When we talk to people nationally, they\u2019re surprised that we don\u2019t have a modern art gallery in the city, but to get to that we need to take a phased approach.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWork is underway to work towards that long-term ambition of a major art gallery and discussions are underway with national funders, government and with major cultural institutions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The temporary measure for up to five years would provide sport and leisure and get people visiting that part of the city, while providing a rental income for the council, Councillor Taylor said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The preferred bidder has proposed a temporary active leisure and sports facility with padel, fitness, a mental health programme and food and drink. The proposal does not require any further investment from the council.\n<\/p>\n
\n The second bidder proposes a public beach hub and events space, with food and drink.\n<\/p>\n
\n Whitehawk and Marina councillor David McGregor said when knocking on doors in the east of the city, people said they felt left behind.\n<\/p>\n
\n The cabinet member for the economy, culture, heritage and tourism said: \u201cIt was very much like \u2018the council doesn\u2019t give a monkey\u2019s about us\u2019, we were determined as soon as we started to change that impression.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMany things have changed that impression. Just look at it along the seafront \u2013 the eastern seafront is so much more vibrant and this is going to be the next part of that.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen we get the art gallery there, it\u2019s a real symbol of our values and our point that we\u2019re not just about the city centre, but the whole seafront and Brighton and Hove as a whole.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Cabinet member for sports, recreation and libraries, Alan Robins, who has been a councillor for 16 years and was born in the city, said he has heard more visions for Black Rock than he had hot dinners.\n<\/p>\n
\n Councillor Robins said: \u201cFinally along with things like the King Alfred, we\u2019ve achieved more in four years then we\u2019ve achieved in 20 years, we\u2019re actually looking to do things.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI remember talk of building a conference centre along there and all sorts of things along there and doing nothing, putting it on a shelf.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Black Rock (Image: Sarah Booker-Lewis, Local Democracy Reporting Service)\n<\/p>\n
\n Successive councils have invested approximately \u00a318 million in the regeneration of Black Rock so far.\n<\/p>\n
\n The money had been spent on diverting utilities, realigning and extending the sea wall, improved coast defences, the 800 metre boardwalk along the beach, and improved walking and cycling connections to Brighton Marina.\n<\/p>\n
\n Other improvement works in the area include the first phase of restoring Madeira Terraces, the restoration and letting of the Reading Room and Temple building, and the refurbishment of Volks Railway Black Rock Station.\n<\/p>\n
\n The financial details and identities of the two businesses linked with the temporary use remained confidential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brighton and Hove City Council\u2019s cabinet yesterday approved a five-year project to use the former swimming pool site…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-804587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}