When I arrived in Brighton, I had never heard of Portslade but I was soon put right about that.

It may have been on the far side of Hove but there was a real pride in the place which still surfaces whenever there is a threat to its identity.

In the late 1960s, the problem was a proposed merger with Hove which was really a takeover bid.

Now Portslade is up in arms at the prospect of being renamed West Brighton in a review by the Boundary Commission.

I joined the Brighton and Hove Herald weekly paper and among my many duties was being in charge of the new Portslade and Southwick edition.

Locals were quick to remind me that Portslade was bigger than Lewes, the county town of East Sussex. It was also larger than the next two towns going west, Southwick and Shoreham. They were also in a different county, West Sussex, while Portslade was the last place in East Sussex.

Portslade was also more ancient than Hove thanks to the ruined manor house which still just about stands in what locals call the old village.

The town’s proper name is Portslade-by-sea because the Aldrington Canal, part of Shoreham Harbour, prevents any direct access.

When there was a gasworks next to the sea, employing several hundred people, they would wait at the bottom of Church Road for a tiny ferry to take them across the canal. The boats were known as gassies and one remained on display at the waiting area for many years until old age and vandalism destroyed it.

The gasworks produced an awful smell known as the Portslade pong which extended into Hove with the prevailing wind and was the main reason housing in this corner was markedly less posh than in other areas.

On the east side Portslade ended abruptly with Station Road meeting Boundary Road, Hove, half way across the highway. That is odd and equally peculiar was the decision to call the railway station Portslade when it is in Hove.

Portslade had its own police station, fire station and council. Labour member Les Hamilton started his long career as a councillor there in the 1960s and is still going strong on Brighton and Hove City Council.

Les and I are among a small and dwindling band of people who recall going to meetings in the council chamber at Victoria Road.

Politically Portslade was unpredictable. There were 18 seats and when I arrived five Liberals held the balance of power between the two major parties. But not for long as they promptly joined the Tories.

A little later, Conservatives held all but one of the seats, prompting their leader unwisely to predict that his party would in future always control Portslade. But Labour won by a landslide next time, winning every seat but his.

Despite being so volatile, most councillors were unexpectedly inarticulate and a few had brains distinctly lacking in grey matter.

The council was actually run extremely efficiently by its clerk, William Tozer, who knew exactly what they wanted to say and do even when they didn’t.

Meetings started at 7pm and it was Tozer’s proud boast that he would always be in the local pub, the meeting over, by 8pm. I never knew him fail.

Eventually Portslade Council was abolished and with it went wonderful names for wards such as Southern Cross and Copperas Gap.

But many Portslade Tories remained on Hove Council a long time including Peter Gladwin, a builder known as Mr Portslade because he owned half the place. On the Labour side, Les Hamilton usually won a seat along with his father, also Les, and later Bob Carden who belonged to a famous political family.

Peter Atkinson may yet prove to be another long-lasting Labour councillor while the current mayor of Brighton and Hove, Alan Robins, was born in South Portslade.

The old part of Portslade, mainly south of the railway line, is one of the city’s poorest places but does not have the customary accompanying social ills. To the north is Mile Oak, so full of young families after the second world war that it was nicknamed Nappy Valley. It is a peaceful enough suburb most of the time but the mood can become angry when people spot an injustice. This happened in 1980 when the government planned a noisy, smelly bypass close to many Mile Oak homes but with no direct links.

There was a tremendous fight and Mile Oak lost but not before it had managed to alter part of the route to make it less damaging.

The Boundary Commission isn’t very good with names so don’t be startled if at the next election some voters find themselves in the new constituency of Portslade and East Brighton.