Brighton & Hove's REGENCY Magazine » Local Businesses

Local People: Roger Amerena

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:15:24 +0000

There are, without doubt, some strange things going on up in the Montpelier area of Brighton. Its venerable Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association (MCHA) is holding its annual Christmas party, charging £15 per ticket, on 4th December. Or is it? Expensively produced leaflets, bearing the association’s logo and charity number, were delivered to members, and invited them to attend the event being held at Montpellier Hall with, as the leaflet indicated, “the kind permission of Mr. Roger Amerena”. In fact, the leaflets were produced and distributed by ex-chairman of the association … one Roger Amerena. Not only is it not the MCHA Christmas Party (they are holding a free party for members on 10th December at St. Nicholas’ Church), it was not authorised in any way by the association. One can only speculate about the reasoning by Mr. Amerena, who had ceased being chairman and a trustee back in May of this year, prior to the society’s annual general meeting. The reason Mr. Amerena was forced to step down as chairman and a trustee was that he was declared bankrupt and, had he remained, the MCHA risked losing its charitable status of 40 years standing. Even when this was explained to him it did not seem to bother Mr. Amerena who cajoled two elderly members of the association to nominate and second him for the position of chairman at the upcoming AGM. When his nomination was rejected by the committee a further request was put forward – that Mr. Amerena should be immediately co-opted onto the committee and should be allowed to stand – unopposed, no less – as chairman at the next AGM. That proposal failed to find a seconder. Now Mr. Amerena is offering to pay people’s memberships of the MCHA, presumably as a means to have them lobby on his behalf.

At this point some of you may feel that I am being unfair to the gentleman, that his bankruptcy is shame enough, that it is an issue between himself and his creditors. That certainly might be the case if Mr. Amerena was all that he claims. The rumour he seems content to have bandied around is that he is a hard-working pillar of the community, who has had the misfortune to be financially crippled by virtue of the loss of all the money he personally put into the failed Coach House project. If he did in fact lose money then he is not alone, and a great deal more sympathy should be extended to those who gave money when they couldn’t afford to lose it in this way. With a silver tongue worthy of a used car salesman, he told some of them that there was no risk, and they might even see a profit. Even now it is not known how much was lost as despite the intention that the limited company formed to manage the Coach House would be converted into an open and accountable charitable trust, Roger Amerena never did this, and has resolutely refused to produce satisfactory accounts.

The days of bankrupts being hanged are long behind us and some now see bankruptcy as a cheap way to avoid paying their debts. Bearing this in mind it is not unfair to say that the actions of some bankrupts today are far less honourable than in days of old. I would suggest Mr. Amerena falls into that category. In fact far from being the solvent local bigwig he attempts to portray Roger Vincent Amerena has been the subject of bankruptcy proceedings in 1994, twice in 1996, in 1997 (when he was declared a bankrupt for three years), in 2005, and again this year, which led to his second official bankruptcy. He certainly wasn’t involved in any “philanthropic” conservation ventures during any of those occasions.

There is a reason I think people in the area, particularly MCHA members, need to know this. The issue is one of accountability, which Mr. Amerena seems to think himself above. When I was a trustee of the charity in 2004 it was clear that in Roger Amerena’s mind both he and the association were one. He regularly referred to his association and even his newsletter when talking about the association’s magazine – and this was prior to him even being chairman. He took staggering liberties such as obtaining mortgage quotations on the Coach House in the name of the MCHA with no authority from the association whatsoever. He misled advertisers, telling them that the trade card he was producing for the association was distributed “all over the area” when in fact it was delivered to only a couple of hundred members. These are by no means isolated examples. The culmination of all this was when the majority of the committee wrote to the then chairman, Mr. Amerena’s predecessor, stating that they felt Roger Amerena was unfit to become the next chairman. Several years later … and nothing seems to have changed.

Respected Local Businessman Dies Following Road Rage Attack

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:08:37 +0000

Tony Magdi, owner of a greengrocers in Portland Road, Hove, has died following injuries he sustained in a road rage incident outside his shop. Mr. Magdi, who was 52, was punched by Paul Lambeth so hard that it caused bleeding on his brain and put him into a coma. Mr. Magdi died shortly afterwards from a lung infection whilst still in a coma. Lambeth is due to be sentenced on December 23rd. Residents in the area are calling for a permanent memorial to be erected in memory of the much-loved greengrocer.

Suitcase Bomb Scare

Crumbs of Sussex

REGENCY — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:12:48 +0000

Every day there seems to be an increasing number of supermarket food delivery vans in the city. Apparently there are a large number of residents who for whatever reason must rely on this type of delivery service to bring groceries directly to their own door step.

However though the main supermarkets are able to offer a wide choice, have user friendly websites and alleviate the struggle of transporting heavy purchases, when it comes to the food itself, they are often unable to offer anything from local producers. This is because the big supermarkets buy on an enormous national scale and primarily on price, so small local suppliers rarely get a look in. Yet as consumers, when we buy locally produced food and drink, we are directly supporting small scale, environmentally friendly farming practices and the local economy, as well as getting much fresher and great tasting food, so I suspect that given the choice, most people would support ‘local’ every time.

I was therefore delighted, at the recent City Food Festival, to meet Simon Croft, who together with his business partner James Meldrum set up Crumbs of Sussex in 2005. They were determined from the beginning to run Crumbs in such a way that residents in this part of Sussex could support a wide range of local suppliers, either by visiting Crumbs’ own fresh food shop at “Shoots Garden Centre” or alternatively by using their home delivery service.

Before opening Crumbs, they spent seven months doing taste and quality research and meeting and interviewing over 120 food producers in Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Kent, with the aim of sourcing really fresh high quality produce, ideally from within a 20 mile radius of their shop, depending on the season.

However, uniquely, they also wanted to pass this information on directly to the consumer, so they designed a clear and transparent colour coded labelling system starting with ‘Low Food Miles’ ranging from as little as 0.5 miles, out to 70 miles, though the average distance from suppler to shop is around 20 miles. These product labels are on everything they sell and also detail the name and background of the producer. Obviously there are times of the year when they do have to source some produce from outside the ‘local’ counties radius, but this too has its own coloured ‘UK’ label. Despite global warming, nobody has yet cracked the growing of exotic fruits like bananas in the UK, so occasionally they have to use an ‘overseas’ source in order to maintain a good range particularly during winter months.

However during the summer months over 90% of the fresh food they sell has been supplied from within the ‘Crumbs Low Food MIle’ formula – just compare this with the estimate from the author Felicity Lawrence in her book “Not on the Label”, highlighting the fact that the contents of the average UK shopping basket have travelled around 20,000 miles!

Crumbs has undoubtedly the most mouthwatering and comprehensive range of foods. Whether you want to buy fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, cheeses, preservatives, breads and pastries,beverages or juices, frankly you are spoilt for choice. They offer no fewer than 50 cheeses, (50% supplied by 9 local cheesemakers) a great range of locally sourced smoked fish, a wonderful dairy and chilled food section, and their range of fruit and vegetables would not be out of place in the best French markets. In 2006, they even launched their own growing operation at Wiston House, near Steyning, in about 3/4 of an acre of the Walled Garden.

I very much admire the obvious hard work, dedication and commitment that Simon and James have shown in their support of local quality producers, which has made Crumbs a genuinely unique food emporium. Furthermore everything they stock in the shop can be ordered from their website www.crumbsofsussex.co.uk and delivered to your door in Brighton on either Thursday or Friday each week.

If you want to visit them in person, the shop (Open Monday to Saturday 9am – 5pm) is at “Shoots Garden Centre”, (off A24 North carriageway 500 yards from Washington Roundabout) Washington, West Sussex. Tel: 01903 892527.

Otherwise why not relax and have everything home delivered like your favourite magazine!