VIOLENT attacks, drug dealing, all-night parties and street drinking are once again plaguing Brighton's most notorious park.
Less than two years after The Level underwent a £2 million renovation the park has once again become a hangout for street drinkers and drug dealers.
With officers called to the park on average more than once a day the situation has got so bad that Sussex Police has stepped up patrols around the park.
Brighton and Hove City Council is also employing attendants to monitor the toilets at the park after they have become a magnet for drug abuse.
Only last week The Level was awarded a Green Flag - recognising its horticultural standards, cleanliness, sustainability and community involvement.
However, in the space of a month Sussex Police were called to 48 incidents at the park - ranging from violent gang assaults to thefts and drugs.
Families who had been impressed by the revamped facilities in the park are now regularly confronted by drink, drugs and violence in broad daylight.
In the middle of a Monday afternoon a brutal assault saw a man attacked over the head with a bottle - leading to a mass brawl in a nearby pub.
On a sunny Friday afternoon a man was seen passed out beneath a climbing frame as toddlers played around him.
Despite the council gardener's best efforts to keep the popular playground, water fountain and flowerbeds clean and tidy, the grass is constantly covered in litter and cigarette butts.
Every weekend litter bins are overflowing with alcohol containers, broken bottles are regularly left in the flower beds and drink and drugs paraphernalia is often left lying around.
One mother found human excrement inside one of the beach huts in the children's play area on a Saturday morning.
Brighton and Hove City Council has battled with the issue of drug use in the toilets - including closing the facilities for part of the day and introducing "sharps bins" for dirty needles.
One mother to a ten year old and a two year old said: "We go to the skate park early in the mornings because my daughter's a bit nervous around the older skaters.
"And at 7.30am there will be people lying around stinking of alcohol.
"It does worry my daughter.
"But it is a really difficult issue. I've been down here on a sunny afternoon for a picnic with a can of cider and it's hard for the police to know the difference between that and problem drinkers. "
Michelle Mold, mother to Frankie, 20 months and 15 year old Renee, of Hollingdean, said: "It's not very nice.
"All that money has been spent and it could have been wasted if The Level's allowed to go down hill again."
Mother of two Jennifer Burton, 39, of Hanover Terrace, said: "It's a real shame.
"The Level had been fantastically improved.
"This park used to just be a hangout for street drinkers and people playing bongos, but that had all changed.
"Unfortunately there does seem to be a bit of the old Level creeping back in. I guess The Level will always be The Level, but I really hope it can be kept nice for the kids.
"The children's end still seems to be OK but as the summer draws on we have been seeing more and more signs of the street drinkers."
One local businesswoman said:" It's still a vast improvement on what it used to be like.
"Yes you see the police around a bit - but you do anywhere.
"If anything it's moved the street drinkers and rough sleepers from The Level into London Road.
"It is lovely to look over and see people using The Level now."
The major £2.2 million restoration of The Level was carried out by Brighton and Hove City Council with Lottery funding and was completed in the summer of 2013.
Prior to the park's regeneration it had become a magnet for antisocial behaviour. In the words of Argus columnist Adam Trimmingham "it declined to the point where it was used by drug addicts, drunks and dossers at night".
The Level was a notorious spot for heroin use and drug dealing but had improved in the last four years.
In November The Level's public toilets were given a national award - despite being closed in the mornings because of drug use.
The council said at the time they had tried closing the toilets to “nip the problem in the bud”.
Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairwoman of the council's environment, Transport and Sustainability committee, said: “The Level is a centrally located park and a popular place where people meet.
"We are aware there have been some concerns raised about rough sleepers and substance misuse.
"We work with the drug and alcohol services, the police, Cityclean and the café proprietors to keep The Level safe for everyone to enjoy.
"Also, during the summer school holidays there will be a full-time attendant looking after the toilets from 11am to 5pm, which will help to reduce any antisocial behaviour on The Level generally.”
DRUNKS, DRUG USE AND RUBBISH, AND IT’S NOT EVEN 9AM
UNCONSCIOUS drunks, revellers smoking cannabis at 9am and toilets out of bounds because of drug use... these are just a few of the incidents bringing down The Level under the radar of the authorities.
At 8am on a Saturday morning when The Argus visited an unconscious man was lying face down on the grass near the entrance to The Level.
Several other people – still sleeping off the excesses of the night before occupied most of the benches at the northern area of the park.
The rubbish bins were overflowing with bottles and cans and more bottles were strewn across the award winning flowerbeds.
Even after 9am as the park started to fill with young children and their families two separate groups of people were seen drinking, swearing and smoking cannabis inside the children’s play area.
One group were openly drinking cans of super-strength cider and a bottle of Jagermeister, and smoking unusual smelling roll-ups within the special AstroTurf area designed for babies and toddlers.
When they eventually left – they left behind a half full open can of beer easily within the reach of young children.
Small clear plastic bags like the type used for drugs were strewn across picnic tables, as were cigarette papers and traces of cannabis.
A second group near the climbing frame were in various states of undress.
A girl in torn clothing and no shoes stumbled over to parents near the swings and said: “Sorry if my language was bad. I was just drunk and fell over.”
A father in the playground with his two children, aged three and one, said: “Once children are in the playground they should be moving on.
“It is children’s time now and they shouldn’t be smoking weed and drinking when the kids are here.”
These incidents are probably too minor to ever be reported to the police but are a regular nuisance for the families that frequent the park.
It is hoped the incidents are not a worrying sign of the start of the park’s decline.
Two years ago, when the brand new Level was reopened with huge fanfare it was rightly celebrated.
The playground facilities are seen by many as the best in the city, the fountains keep children of all ages entertained throughout the summer holidays and the skatepark attracts national attention.
However, the increasingly seedy undertones are in danger of dragging The Level back to the dark old days.
As one father told The Argus: “I know what you’re talking about, but The Level is always going to be The Level.”
At 3pm that Saturday afternoon the park was packed with hundreds of families and the police were called to an incident which resulted in one of the public toilets being closed for several hours.
SUSSEX POLICE CALLED 48 TIMES
POLICE were called about 48 incidents at The Level between June 13 and July 12 involving “a wide range of issues including missing people, drug-taking, thefts and assaults”.
They included: June 22 – PC Jimmy Conway was on patrol at The Level when he saw a group of people and stopped and searched a 16-year-old boy from London. Forty wraps of suspected class A drugs worth £400 were found.
June 23, 11.54am – Police called to report of a man carrying a beer bottle walking into the skate park and punching a younger man.
June 27, 10am – Police called to two men shouting at and being abusive to passers by including children. The men, who were drunk, were spoken to by officers.
July 2, 1.55pm – Police called to reports of five people in the women’s toilets injecting drugs July 6 2pm – Police called after man was struck over the head with a bottle at The Level. The incident spread to the Bat & Ball pub where a group of men began fighting.
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