Post in West Pier Newsagent - Shop keeper victim of violent gang

2007 Feb 12 13:03 UTC

This whole issue has had a fantastic response from the community.  Although the
following reply from Tony Mernagh, Chief Executive of Brighton & Hove Business
Forum does not seems as positive.

email sent 12 February 2007 11:04

Hello Lorraine,

Your email to local councillors concerning the problems that the owner of West
Pier News is having with anti-social behaviour has been passed on to me for
comment.

Regrettably anti social behaviour is an increasing problem nationally as well
and in Brighton & Hove and it is not one that has a quick fix.

Without any criticism intended I am afraid that Joseph cannot rely on Sussex
Police to assist him since, it is the experience of most shopkeepers that their
attendance at incidents is unreliable and too often unsatisfactory. In fairness
to them, the calls upon their time are manifold and often a matter of
preventing serious injury or disturbance.

In my view Joseph has little choice but to contract the services of an on-call
security company that can attend his premises at the drop of a hat and in
double quick time.

The Business Forum has recently established a Business Improvement District
(BID) in the city centre which pays for security guards to patrol the BID area
seven days a week/ 365 days a year and they have been a stunning success. We
are investigating establishing BIDs in other areas but at the moment we are
working on Hove and the seafront is not likely to be investigated for at least
a year an possibly longer.

However the security company that we have contracted for the BID area also
offers the on-call service I referred to above. They are called SASSCo and the
contact is Mark Eteen on 08707 666999. If Joseph would like to talk to someone
who has contracted their services in the past he could get in touch with
Rudolph Egler from The Market Place in Meeting House Lane (01273 329417).

Joseph will have to pay for this service but it may well be a sound investment.
If his problems continue he will almost certainly start to lose custom as
shoppers avoid the ugly scenes that occur in and outside his premises.

I hope that this helps.

Tony Mernagh
Chief Executive.
Brighton & Hove Business Forum