Lack of drive from jobless, Paying the price, A dog's life

Unemployment is running well above the national average at six per cent in Brighton and Hove.

Yet one major employer is having to look to London for staff because it cannot recruit enough locally. Brighton and Hove Buses pays well above the minimum wage. It's a reliable and reputable company. Yet it simply can't get enough drivers.

Some jobless people cannot drive and those caring for young children could find the shifts rather irksome. Traffic can be tough and so can some of the passengers. But it is still extraordinary that there are not enough jobless people in Brighton and Hove prepared to drive the buses.

There's no shortage of Londoners prepared to do the job even though wages are higher in the capital. They will put more pressure on the local housing market, which is the last thing Brighton and Hove needs. But you can't blame the bus company when it offers jobs locally and they are not taken.

Paying the price

People living near former railway allotments in Highcroft Villas, Brighton, want to use them as community gardens.

Their strength of feeling was shown yesterday when 100 people blocked the road and a petition of more than 1,100 signatures was handed to Pavilion MP David Lepper. But Rail Property, which owns the site, has a duty to get the best price for it. That's why it has made the unpopular move of seeking housing there.

The best way to resolve this is for the inspector at the forthcoming public inquiry to turn down the housing scheme. Rail Property, having done its best to make money, could then do the decent thing and sell it to locals for a small sum. And an area starved of green space can have a public garden.

A dog's life

Gundrun the poodle has set a new record by producing a litter of 14 puppies at her home in Horsted Keynes. And it's hard to say who's the most exhausted - Gundrun or her owner, Sue Nelson.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.