HOVE has seldom been kind to the villa it bought in New Church Road the best part of a century ago.

It took Brooker Hall, one of several elaborate mansions, and changed it into a rather gloomy museum.

But in 1966 the old town hall in Church Road was destroyed by the biggest fire ever in the borough.

A new place had to be found for the staff and councillors decided it should be Brooker Hall.

The hall was a remarkably unsuitable place and at meetings in the L shaped main room councillors could not even see each other.

But worse was to follow when the council decided to sell many of the museum treasures which had been in store.

It was disgraceful because most of these artefacts had been given to Hove in perpetuity. But in the 1970s the new town hall was opened and what remained of the museum collection was put back into the hall.

The museum was quite attractive with a decent toy collection, many good paintings by British artists and memorabilia about the first days of film in Hove.

The next crisis for the museum was when the council wanted to put the library in Church Road into Brooker Hall.

This was successfully blocked by opposition led by the former Green councillor Christopher Hawtree.

But now the whole museum is once again threatened by the closure of its attractive tea room for lack of numbers.

No one knows what will happen but there are fears it could lead to the closure of the whole museum.

Combining the museum and the library might be the best solution.

Together they have many fine collections including the Wolseley Collection of items connected with Sir Garnet Wolsley, the very model of a modern major general in the Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan.

But I fear that even these treasures and a range of events that the museum hosts including for children will not prevent the museum from dying.

Museums and libraries are not essential council functions in the way that education and social care are.

They are particularly vulnerable to closure because of this.

Brighton and Hove has so far done well in protecting the heritage in its museums and libraries and is currently hosting a major Constable exhibition in Brighton.

But in this age of austerity the closure of Hove Museum could be the first of a thousand cuts.

One of the rules governing Hove seafront is that all dogs should be on a lead.

But this rule is seldom obeyed despite the large number of dogs on the prom.

I know this to my cost thanks to an incident that occurred a week ago today.

I was riding my bike sedately along the promenade cycle lane near the King Alfred Leisure Centre when a large dog collided with my bike and brought me crashing to the ground.

This animal was off the lead and there was no chance of avoiding it.

The dog seemed uninjured and the bike was OK but I was not.

At first I hoped that I had not been badly hurt but the second of two X-rays revealed a broken right hip.

As a result I am currently in the Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath having had an artificial hip installed.

This is the second time I have been there this year as I fractured the other hip in January. This injury could hardly have happened at a worse time for someone who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and who was making a reasonable recovery.

Brighton and Hove City Council has this year painted prominent notices about the rules governing dogs on the prom.

But I have not noticed any prosecutions.

Cyclists are often portrayed as seafront villains but dogs without leads can be a far worse menace as I have proved.

East Devon District Council has been dealing with another seafront pest by saying it will prosecute anyone who feeds seagulls.

This is because there have been many incidents in which the flying rats have snatched food such as ice creams and chips from people on the prom.

I have some sympathy for the gulls which have been forced off the cliffs, their natural nesting place, by humans.

The problem seems to be much worse in south west resorts such as Sidmouth and St Ives.