Good morning, Brighton. Post Pride clean-up teams were apparently stellar this year with spotless beaches come Monday. Well done all involved ⭐️. Anyway these Summer holidays are zipping by - 4 weeks until kids go back and only 2 weeks until the Premier League starts again (21st Aug). So take a breath, it will all be ok come September.

In today’s Brighton Scoop:

- Phil Reynolds

🏝️ Brighton & Hove City Council has begun pumping thousands of tons of shingle into a new groyne field along the Hove seafront, between King Alfred Leisure Centre and Second Avenue. The shingle, dredged from a licensed site around 700m offshore in the English Channel, is being delivered by a large dredger with support vessels and safety boats assisting. Read about the project.

The project will extend the beach by roughly 25 metres out to sea, with the council saying the wider beach will help protect the area from flooding and coastal erosion, while also reducing the amount of shingle that washes onto the promenade during storms and high winds.

The works started yesterday and are expected to take around four weeks to complete.

🍩 Brighton i360 marks a bumpy first decade. When it opened on 4 August 2016, the tower briefly held the Guinness World Record for the world's most slender building (since lost to a New York skyscraper) and drew Prince Philip to its ribbon-cutting. But visitor numbers never matched the hype - a CIPFA report found opening-year figures were roughly a third of forecasts, blaming "optimism bias" in the original business plans.

Debt struggles followed: British Airways dropped its sponsorship in 2022, the operator entered administration in 2024, and the attraction closed that December. The council ultimately wrote off £51m to get it reopened under new owners. Green councillor Oliver Sykes disputes CIPFA's findings, citing rail strikes and Covid as key factors, while acknowledging visitor numbers fell short.

We’ve been up it recently taking advantage of the local resident offer (£7 for adults and £4.50 for kids) and love it particularly on a sunny day when you have friends visiting.

♟️ Checkmate, Sussex! The University just hosted its biggest-ever chess bash, with 200+ players and 100 spectators descending on campus from 21-26 July for the Sussex Chess Congress. Five Grandmasters rocked up, a 5-year-old prodigy (Aahana Gupta) stole hearts, and Ukraine's Eldar Gasanov swept the Masters title with a near-perfect 8/9. Local hero Christopher Jeffries (Brighton & Hove) bagged the U1300 amateur crown, while three tournaments ran simultaneously alongside a junior summer school teaching the next generation their opening gambits.

Even Deputy Vice-Chancellor Michael Luck got in on the action, making the ceremonial first move against Malcolm Pein of Chess in Schools and Community - fitting, given his three decades studying AI (a field chess practically invented the benchmark for). Add a world-championship photographer capturing it all, and Sussex has firmly put itself on the chess map. ♟️

🌤️ | 📈 22° | 📉 14° | ☔️ <5% | 🌬️ SW 20mph | 🌊 3-4ft

🌤️ | 📈 22° | 📉 13° | ☔️ <5% | 🌬️ SW 13mph | 🌊 1-2ft

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Cinema’s aren’t going to fill themselves. Break a habit of a lifetime, turn off Netflix, get off the sofa and potter down to your local (cinema).

Duke of York’s Picturehouse - Book

The Odyssey | The Odyssey 35mm

Dukes at Komedia - Book

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | The Odyssey | 🎈Sylvanian Families: The Movie

Brighton Coffee Festival is the South’s biggest coffee party, bringing together an eclectic mix of Sussex and the UK’s biggest coffee and hospitality brands. Your ticket for BCF includes entry to the festival, a branded lanyard, and the opportunity to sample some of the UK’s best coffees and products. Our exhibitors will be giving away free samples, lots of tasters, and also give you the chance to purchase products that you love! You will also be able to watch the UK & Ireland Filter Championships, BCF Latte Art Championships, listen to our incredible talks and panel discussions, or just chill out to the sounds of the BCF resident DJs. Full Schedule

50+ Singles Night | Be at One Brighton | 7pm | Info

🎈 Family friendly events

Great to have you follow the Scoop today. Keep on truckin’ and share the Scoop with a trucker.