Pride to take over running of street after party

The official organisers of the daytime festival have staged an 11th hour intervention to save the post-event Village Street Party in Brighton.

In previous years the party in St James's Street, Kemp Town, has been attended by tens of thousands of people but after no-one came forward to run it this year it appeared doomed.

In April both Brighton and Hove City Council and Sussex Police said the lack of a team to run the event meant it was “unlikely” Pride 2011 would feature a street party.

But now Pride, the organisers of the official event in Preston Park and the parade through the city, has confirmed it has said it will run the post-Pride party as well as the daytime festival on August 13 and 14.

A spokesman said: “No one had come forward with a plan so the Pride trustees stepped in.

“The main reason Pride has got involved is for the benefit of the community.”

St James's Street will be closed to traffic and pubs and bars could open late and set up stands in the road.

The manager of one bar in St James's Street, who asked not to be named, said: “We wanted a special licence but we had no idea what was going on.”

Ben Duncan, a Green councillor for Queen's Park, said the plan had his support.

He added: “It's fantastic that someone has come forward to organise it.”

A council spokesman said: “The existing Pride organisers are going to run the St James's Street Party.

"There is no formal requirement for resident consultation and with the St James's Street Party seven weeks away, the emergency services and the council's overriding priority is public safety.

“We are committed to good communications with residents and as part of this Pride will sharing information and will be doing this via a letter drop that will inform residents of what will be taking place over the weekend.

“Pride is also setting up a community working group and will be inviting a number of groups in the area to work with it so that communication back to key groups in the area takes place.”