A flower-seller who is being forced out of business despite helping cut antisocial behaviour is being defended by councillors who are demanding she be reinstated.

Brighton and Hove City Council rejected a tender by Evelyn Farrelly, co-owner of The Lady Orchid in Norfolk Square, Brighton, to continue running her business from a converted public toilet.

Ms Farrelly, who won an award for her part in a clean-up operation in the square, has been on the pitch since April last year but will now have to close within a fortnight.

Councillor Paul Elgood is demanding she be reinstated and has called for a meeting with the chief executive, Alan McCarthy.

When Ms Farrelly opened her flower stall in Norfolk Square, Hove, it was practically a no-go area where gangs of up to 40 street drinkers, drug addicts and prostitutes would gather.

She helped the council improve the square and won an award from the Home Office last December for her work as part of a group of traders tackling antisocial behaviour.

Her business is outside a disused toilet block where addicts used to inject themselves, which she now uses for storage.

The council has told her to shut up shop and move away from the pitch, as it had put the site out to tender and another business had offered more money.

Coun Elgood, leader of the city's Liberal Democrat group, said: "The council should have put the site out to tender before she set up her business so she would not have put so much time and money building a successful business just to have the rug taken out from under her."

Coun Elgood and ward councillor Dawn Davidson will hand in a residents' petition against the decision at the next full council meeting on Thursday.

Ms Farrelly said it was probably already too late as she was already winding up the business and had made an employee redundant.

She said: "Since a story about the decision appeared in The Argus last week we have had so much support from people living in the square.

"But we have already made plans to close the business."

She said she would never have opened the business if she had known the council would lease the site to a higher bidder once it became successful.

She said: "We have had to put up with a lot.

"We have had things hurled at us and there has been verbal and physical abuse.

"I do feel angry. We have worked to improve the commercial value of the site only for someone else to come in and take it over."

A council spokeswoman said: "We genuinely appreciates Ms Farrelly's work in Norfolk Square. However, as a businesswoman she must understand the tendering process.

"If another business makes a better offer, the council, as landlord, is bound to accept it.

"Ms Farrelly was aware she was in competition with other businesses and that the council was under pressure to secure the best deal.

"The property has to be marketed on a level playing field or the council could find itself open to possible legal challenges."

Friday, July 15, 2005