We need to work as one to make Lagoon better

Every blade of grass was taken inside the playground while scores of children splashed happily in the paddling pool. Older kids enjoyed the skate park while the new amusements such as the trampoline did a roaring trade.

It was all so different a few weeks earlier when I went to the Lagoon with one of my grandchildren early on a bitterly cold morning. We were just about the only people there.

Without the huge crowds it was noticeable that parts of the park have become rather tatty. In particular, the playground has seen better days.

The Lagoon has been a popular attraction since well before the Second World War. It was built on land that had formerly been a marsh.

It is the only sizeable seafront pool in Brighton and Hove and has always been well-used by boats. But the playground next door was pretty ordinary until about 20 years ago.

Largely through the energy of local Labour councillor Heather James, the playground was improved and the paddling pool created. Next came the skateboard park which catered for a group too often ignored – boys in their early teens.

Now another local councillor, this time a Tory, is seeking further improvements at the Lagoon. To this end, Robert Nemeth staged a meeting at the Big Beach Cafe last week.

He had no idea whether anyone would turn up but he need not have worried. The café was packed with people wanting to make the Lagoon a better place.

Nearly all those with an interest in the Lagoon were invited to say a few words and most of them did. They included the city seafront office, the cafe, Hove Watersports, the model yacht club, Shoreham Port, the Deep Sea Anglers, Friends of Wish Park, the Heal family who run the amusements and the local residents’ association.

The mood of the meeting was overwhelmingly positive. People want a better park and many of them are prepared to band together to achieve it.

There will be no shortage of help since most other parks west of Sackville Road have some sort of Friends group and are only too keen to offer advice.

Hove Lagoon has so far lacked that kind of support because it attracts people from a far wider area. It is more than just a neighbourhood park.

Some improvements are already being made. Norman Cook, who runs the café, generously donated a large piece of playground equipment last year and the council is to provide two more.

There is general agreement that the garish piece of street art on the southern wall is badly in need of reinstating or removal.

The little-used petanque piste has been taken away and the amusements have proved popular. A couple of outdoors table tennis tables are well-used.

One reason for the Lagoon’s popularity is that parking is free most of the time in West Hove. But there are still plenty of motorists who drive on to the prom even when they are clearly banned. A few prosecutions, well publicised, would put a stop to that.

The skateboard park could be extended westwards to provide more space and variety for its adherents. The café could also be extended and physically improved. In the long-term, better uses might be found for the pitch and putt course next to the Lagoon which has few users.

Occasional wafts of foul air remind people that the playground is built on top of a large sewer junction – hardly an ideal location.

Other people may have different ideas for the Lagoon, but the important thing is that everyone works together to press for what the majority wants.

When I first went there many years ago it was a sleepy lagoon. It’s not now and it needs some help, which is already on the horizon.

The Lagoon was not the only place to see huge crowds at the weekend. There were big turnouts for festival events, especially the children’s parade.

At times the city was barely able to cope, with chaotic scenes at the station as everyone was heading home that evening, with long queues of traffic on main roads.

There are likely to be many more busy days this summer, especially with the opening of the i360 tower and with enormous events such as the London to Brighton bike ride in June.

Brighton and Hove must welcome these visitors and make sure they have a good time but, to take the traffic away, the police and city need to advertise less-crowded alternative routes out of the city, relieving pressure on the A23 and A27.