BRIGHTON is no longer the place to be for eccentrics – and now you get stared at for being different.

That’s the view of resident Jacqueline D’Hazzard who says her home city has become “gentrified”.

She used to enjoy walking round with her green dreadlocks, body piercings and goth clothes, which she said was “a pretty standard look for Brightonians”.

But the 52-year-old says she now gets stared at.

She said the late journalist and punk poet Steven Wells summed Brighton up as a place full of “crusty-wusty, hippy-dippy ning-nang-nongers”.

She said: “There were a lot more people with dreadlocks, cyber goths, hippies and just all round eccentric characters.”

But now she fears it is slowly rejecting the diversity that gave it its welcoming feel and its streets are “filled with judgemental onlookers”, mainly visitors, students and tourists.

Jacqueline, who lives near Lewes Road, said: “I used to feel so comfortable walking around dressed really alternatively but now all I am faced with are bad looks. My partner and I are very goth looking but we feel very disenfranchised.

“My ‘look’ at 52 years old is being ridiculed and misunderstood owing to the influx of transients which makes me feel very marginalised.

"If I was going to visit family and friends in other cities or villages I would expect to get looks walking around but I never expected that to happen in Brighton.”

The city council’s five-year plan to boost tourism is one of the reasons behind Brighton losing its “ning-nag-nongers”, according to Jacqueline.

She said: “This idea of making the city more appealing to tourists implies there is a huge disregard for those that have lived here for years.

“They are stripping the residents of their culture and Brighton is slowly being sold off to the highest bidder.”

Jacqueline said independent businesses and pubs closing and the “influx of chains” and coffee shops has made her and her friends feel more disconnected from the city than ever.

She said: “They want commuters to come down from London and rich tourists to come and have an expensive coffee in one of the hundreds of cafes that have saturated our streets.

“Not too long ago there were so many more independent shops where you could buy alternative clothes but most of them have been pushed out and replaced by yet another coffee shop.”

She also said the high percentage of students living here has made her and her friends feel excluded.

She said a lot of her friends around the age of 50 with tattoos, shaved heads and piercings are being “pushed out” and living further away from the city which “appears to be cleansing itself of sub-cultures”.

Jacqueline said: “There were so many great pubs in Brighton that you could go to and feel welcome no matter what age you were or what style you wore.

“There used to be a lovely connection between all the pubs in The Lanes and they used to let all the crusty-wustys in.

"I can’t believe Doctor Brighton’s has just gone, that was one of the last remaining old pubs that stayed true to what residents loved as it always drew in a really mixed crowd.”

A council spokesman said: “Tourism is the lifeblood of our city and always has been. Everyone has their own view on what the ‘unique character’ of our city is.

“With regard to the relative merits of change and evolution affecting this ‘unique character’, we believe everyone is entitled to their opinion.”