Pictures show Brighton seafront lights are safe, company claims

The leader of Brighton and Hove City Council threatened to tear up a £15 million contract with contractor Colas after an Argus investigation found a man selling two historic lanterns on Facebook.

The Argus informed Brighton and Hove City Council and then captured the moment officers seized the seafront lanterns from a man in Hangleton after he attempted to flog them to our reporters.

The council originally concluded the Facebook advert was a fake “due to the agreed preservation actions expected of the contractor”.

However, it is now conducting an investigation - with the potential of starting criminal proceedings depending on its outcome.

READ MORE: Human error blamed for seafront lights Facebook sale

This followed contractor Colas removing 20 of the heritage lanterns after they were found to pose a safety risk. They were given instructions to try to preserve the original materials.

The pictures are said to show all the lanterns being “safely stored” and comes after immense pressure for the contractor to prove its claim the historic architecture was still in its possession.

The chief executive of Colas blamed the incident on “uncharacteristic human error”.

Concerns were raised after Facebook seller “Joe” claimed he only had two as the rest “were being sold to a private buyer”.

The council said 20 lights would be removed and replaced. There are two lights for each post, which means ten cast iron tops with the city’s coat of arms have also been removed.

These have been valued at about £3,000 each.

It is not immediately clear how many lights and tops are in the pictures sent by Colas and Conservative councillor Mary Mears remains concerned.

The moment seafront lights were seized

She said: “I’m concerned that, to date, we haven’t had an official response to councillors. Having seen the pictures, I don’t know when they were taken and because of the angle, I can’t say what is actually there. There needs to be accountability as to what those contractors took down and what exactly is being stored so that, as councillors, we know our heritage is being looked after.”

Two seafront lights were seized after the Argus passed a recording of the phone call arranging a sale and the man’s number to the council.

The man claimed he had been given the items and felt “caught in the middle”.

'Action is needed to ensure our historic items are safe'

Roger Amerena

THE chairman of Brighton and Hove Heritage Commission believes the council must now adopt measures to preserve the future of our city’s architecture.

Roger Amerena first alerted The Argus to the Facebook advert.

He said: “My proposal is that a separate agency is immediately created which is connected to the council but also has quasi-executive powers.

“It would be made up of two sitting councillors, a conservation officer and local people – 12 of us – and will have the mandate to record and catalogue all historic items in the public domain whether listed or not.

“It would be up to the agency to decide when an item was either to be removed, or whether it was to be restored or not. That item would be assessed as to its value and then the agency would advise the council to sell it on a dedicated council website for the sale of historic items.

“Those items would be certified. The revenues from the historic items that are sold would then be put into a ringfenced account and then used at the agency’s direction for the restoration of lampposts, the recasting of new street bollards and the introduction of Brighton road signs, as all of the original road signs are disappearing.”