NIMBY… Unless I can paint it a nice colour: Petition launched to let locals decorate controversial “giant ugly” bike hangars outside their homes, after storage units branded “a monstrosity”

After two years of being ridiculed as “giant ugly objects” and “monstrosities” by residents and politicians who claimed they were evidence of the “continuing war against motorists”, Brighton and Hove’s controversial cycle hangars are now the subject of a petition calling on the council to let locals decorate them “tastefully” with mural-style artwork.

The cycle hangars, which offer secure on-street storage for six bicycles, proved a somewhat surprising and enduring source of contention in the south coast city when they were first rolled out in 2022 and early 2023.

Since then, Brighton and Hove City Council have installed 150 hangars across the city, as waiting lists for spaces stretched into the hundreds. However, they also attracted the ire of some locals who claimed that the dark green units are an eyesore and take up too much space, despite the hangars being able to fit in a space usually reserved for one car.

> NIMBY locals "concerned and distressed" by "giant ugly" bike hangar

In November 2022, a Hove woman successfully persuaded the council not to put one of the new hangars outside her home because it was “unattractive”, after arguing that looking at the “giant ugly objects” from her lounge and bedroom was making her “distressed”.

Local Conservative councillor Robert Nemeth, meanwhile, supported Janice Goodlet’s stance in “opposing this monstrosity outside her home”, though Green Party politician Jamie Lloyd noted that Goodlet was one of many locals who believe the new cycle hangars “are going to be a huge imposition on their lives while seemingly ignoring the Range Rovers that are half parked on the pavement”.

And this week, Brighton resident Dinah Clarke has launched a petition urging the now Labour-led council to let residents paint the aesthetically divisive storage units, arguing that those “living amongst these hangars should have a choice to decorate” them.

In the change.org petition, which has so far attracted 37 signatures and will be presented to the local authority at a public meeting next month, Clarke said residents should “have permission to decorate the hangars tastefully without the threat of the art being treated like graffiti and so painted over”, pointing to Brighton’s penchant for colourful murals as a possible antidote to what she described as the hangars’ “bland surfaces”.

Clarke also argued in the petition that locals should “have the right to reduce the size of the enormous chevrons placed on the sides of the hangars”.

> Brighton & Hove City Council rejects Tory demand for five-fold increase in cycle hangar fees

However, the council’s cabinet member for transport, parking, and public realm, Trevor Muten, has responded to Clarke’s artwork suggestion by noting that visibility – and not style – remains the key factor behind the hangars’ design.

“We always welcome creative suggestions from residents and have looked into this. We are not currently considering artwork for our cycle hangars,” Muten said in a statement.

“The chevrons on the side of the hangars are for extra visibility and safety and are not something we would change.

“As the cycle hangars are a structure on the highway, first and foremost they need to be compliant with regulations and visible to motorists and other road users.”

> “Is there anything that can’t be blamed on cyclists?” Baby hospitalised after motorist crashes into bike hangar – and locals blame the hangar

Even going beyond the row over their looks, the green cycle hangars – whose counterparts in Bath have also been labelled “measles” by opponents – first attracted controversy in Brighton and Hove in late 2022, when a newly installed unit in Norfolk Square was met with outrage after residents pointed out that it was hanging over two permit car parking spaces, prompting the council to investigate the hangar’s positioning.

> Council "investigating" after driver outrage at cycle hangar "deliberately" blocking car parking spaces

One resident suggested that the unit’s “deliberate” placement was either the result of “sheer incompetence or the continuing war by Brighton and Hove City Council against motorists”, and was antagonising residents and car owners.

However, the local authority told road.cc at the time that while it was “aware of concerns”, the council was nevertheless “delighted” at the overall response to the storage units, saying that “residents have wanted them for a long time”.

But just a month later, in December 2022, plans to introduce a second cycle hangar on Cissbury Road – thanks to the demand for bike storage in the area – were opposed by Labour councillors and some residents, who claimed the additional unit would exacerbate the pre-existing parking issues on the road, which is located near Brighton, Hove, and Sussex VI Form College.

> Residents “threatened with police” after “surrounding” contractors installing bike hangar

One local claimed that, thanks to the original hangar taking up a single parking space on the road, parents and carers picking up students from the college had since started parking on double yellow lines and leaving their engines running.

Following this opposition, the council was reported to be advising contractors installing the hangars to call the police should they be challenged by members of the public while going about their work – with the Labour councillor who raised the issue describing it as “inappropriate and unhelpful to threaten” residents raising concerns over how money is being spent.

A month later, according to the council, staff from parking enforcement contractors NSL were in the process of implementing a parking suspension, in preparation for the installation of the second bike hangar on Cissbury Road, Hove, when they were “surrounded by a lot of unhappy residents”.

However, a Cissbury Road resident criticised the council’s account, branding it “misleading”, and claimed that he “had barely gotten a word out before I was threatened with the police”.