With characteristic heavy handedness, Brighton and Hove City Council is about to instigate a city-wide ban on the distribution of free printed material.
This is apparently to address the limited and localised activity of street flyering.
I doubt these flyers feature highly on most people's list of things that require zealous and costly council regulation but they do play an essential role in publicising many independent ventures and activities that will now go unnoticed. This comes at a time when the independent enterprises that give Brighton its unique and vibrant image are struggling to survive in the face of corporate domination of the economy.
The council says it may permit the distribution of what it refers to as "political" material but, worryingly, this material must first go before the council to receive an Orwellian seal of approval to ensure that it conforms to what it permits as "political". Failure to do so may result in prosecution. Whatever happened to freedom of speech?
Occasional, localised litter, regrettable though it is, may be the price we have to pay for living in the kind of dynamic city that the council often takes credit for. With their apparent zeal to ban everything that moves at the moment, it seems the environment committee would rather we lived in Frinton. For the sake of Brighton I think we should ban them.
- Chris Natural, Tilbury Place, Brighton
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