YOUTH group volunteers are celebrating after they received an unexpected temporary reprieve from their expensive parking headache.

Volunteers at Brighton Sea Cadets have been given five temporary permits until October allowing them to park close to their headquarters.

The group were facing an annual bill of £2,500 in parking tickets which they said threatened their future.

However, an intervention by Brighton and Hove City Council Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald helped them to secure the permits.

Volunteers at the 80-year-old organisation have been paying to park by their headquarters in Brewer Street since the introduction of the Lewes Road Triangle parking zone last year.

They had been told by council officers they would have to wait until a city-wide parking review takes place in October before any permits could be given.

But after Labour councillors supported an amendment by their Conservative colleagues at the environment, transport and sustainability committee meeting on Tuesday, a temporary compromise was found with five temporary parking permits issued until October.

Permits had been issued by council officers in January but they were immediately retracted because the move had not been agreed at committee.

Sea Cadet chairwoman Clare Jackson thanked The Argus for highlighting the problem and said she had been “overwhelmed by support”.

She said: “This will go a long way in keeping our expenditure down to allow us to continue working with young people in the area.

“I know this is only temporary and we still have a long way to go in convincing people and the council that we will not cause disruption in the area by parking our vehicles.

“I hope that when the council review parking for voluntary organisations later in the year, they see sense and issue organisations with parking permits to allow them to continue working in the city.”

Coun Theobald, who has long championed the group’s cause, said he was delighted by the move despite the “Green administration’s attempts to kick this into the long grass”.

He added: “I know that there are other groups in the city in a similar position and I would like to see the council use its discretion to also help them.”

Labour’s committee spokeswoman Gill Mitchell suggested the permits should be temporary, pending the outcome of the city review.

Her colleague Emma Daniel said there needed to be a “common sense” approach to the Sea Cadets who, she said, were led to believe they would be entitled to a permit and were an exceptional case.

Green committee chairman Pete West accused rival councillors of electioneering and said it was a “dangerous” way to create policy.

Naval lads

Sea Cadets date back to the Crimean War when returning sailors formed Naval Lads’ Brigades to help those orphaned by the conflict. The first brigade was established in Whitstable, Kent, in 1854.

By 1899, Sea Cadets received Royal recognition when Queen Victoria presented the Windsor unit with £10 for uniforms.

In 1919, the Admiralty officially recognised the 34 brigades and changed the name to the Navy League Sea Cadet Corps.

A donation of £50,000 from Lord Nuffield allowed the Sea Cadets to expand and by the outbreak of the Second World War, there were 100 units around the UK with 10,000 cadets.