Sussex weekly round-up: 11 May - 17 May 2024
Sadie Avard / @sas.tudiosThe story about Ed Sheeran surprising an East Sussex primary school with a gig proved a popular read this week.
A variety of local issues featured on the BBC News website, BBC Radio Sussex and BBC South East Today.
We have picked five stories from the past week in case you missed them.
Why does the sea stink of rotting vegetables?
The warmer weather has brought people to the coast but some people in Brighton are worried about taking a dip.
Brown, foul-smelling sludge has been spotted on patches of water along the coastline.
It has prompted many questions, such as what is it? Is it harmful? And why does it smell so bad?
It is called algal bloom, or May Rot, and it happens when the tiny plant-like organisms living in the ocean called phytoplankton increase in numbers due to sudden warmer weather and brightness levels.
Teenager in 'frightening' mods and rockers clashes
Press associationIt is exactly 60 years since violence erupted on beaches on the south coast of England with infamous clashes between mods and rockers.
Bill Ward, who was 17 at the time, said it was "very frightening" getting caught up in the tribal showdown in Brighton.
More than 1,000 youths fought each over between 16 to 18 May 1964 in Brighton, in scenes which were later immortalised in the cult film Quadrophenia.
Large groups of teenagers also committed mayhem on the rain-swept streets of resorts including Margate, Brighton, Clacton and Bournemouth.
'Royal Rye' welcomes Queen Camilla to literary event
EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockHer Majesty Queen Camilla took centre stage at an event celebrating literature in Sussex.
The Queen shrugged off the rain in Rye to greet waving crowds who lined the cobbled streets.
She bowed to shake hands with two-year-old Bobby Neal, who was wearing a yellow rain coat.
Bobby’s mother, Emma Russell, said: “It was amazing - what a memory to have for life. He’s a bit overwhelmed.”
Calls for hospital maternity review after baby death
PAA mother whose baby died after medical staff missed opportunities to save her has called for a public inquiry into an NHS trust’s maternity services.
Chloe Vowels Lovett’s daughter, Esme, was stillborn at 38 weeks in 2022 after hospital staff dismissed stabbing pains 33 weeks into her pregnancy as normal.
“To lose a child when you shouldn’t have lost a child is just unbearable,” she said.
The University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has apologised.
Historic Sussex game could disappear, warns club
There are fears that a ball game which originated in Sussex more than 500 years ago is at risk of disappearing.
Stoolball resembles cricket and in the 1950s there were 3,000 clubs across the country.
By the 1980s this number drastically declined to 250 and has continued to dwindle since.
Sonia Fry, chairperson of the Central Sussex Stoolball Division, said numbers had "reduced massively" over the last 10 years and that every team in the division had to "scratch around" for players.
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