The recently launched Brighton and Hove City Council’s e-petition facility has stalled – at least for those objecting to the proposed closure of the Brighton History Centre.

At first the counter was clearly not working – people signed but the numbers did not rise accordingly on the council’s website. This was put right after Christmas, and since then the tally has been rocketing.

Suddenly, however, the council has discovered a need to review the system. Signatories are reporting they have been asked to re-register, supplying home, work or place of study address. Only those who “live, work or study in the city” are eligible to object to the closure of the History Centre.

The centre is used by people from all parts of the world for researching their Brighton and Hove ancestors. Research is synonymous with “study”. The council cannot think that only the city’s council tax- payers deserve a say, for students do not pay council tax.

The centre draws visitors to the city. For most, family historians do more than merely add ancestral names to a family tree. They are passionate to learn about the lives of those personalities from the past who have, after all, shaped their own.

Many who use the centre were born in the city and, despite having moved away, visit regularly. Angry anyway about the closure threat, they are now, quite rightly, protesting even more vigorously that their objections will not count.

Ninka Willcock,
Terminus Street, Brighton