A new mini-square by Eastbourne Station won’t go ahead now plans to regenerate the area are being scaled back because of rising costs.
On Monday (November 18), Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, agreed to ‘descope’ plans to improve Eastbourne town centre by removing proposals to create a new civic space in Terminus Road.
The first phase of the project was completed in 2020, with large-scale improvements to the area around the town’s railway station and Beacon Shopping Centre.
The next phase was expected to have seen a further round of upgrades, with further pedestrianisation of Terminus Road between Bankers Corner and Langney Road. This was expected to include the creation of the new square — an aspect of the project which would have involved the closure of a one-way section of highway connecting Bolton Road to Langney Road.
But, in a report to Cllr Dowling, officers said the project had faced “significant unexpected budget increases” since its funding was first secured in 2019. This was a result of both rising inflation and specific cost increases in the construction sector, the report said.
The total budget for the project is a little over £6 million of which a little under £2.5 million has already been spent. There is a remaining budget of £3.594 million to complete the scheme — a figure officers say is not enough to do everything in the original proposals.
The report read: “With significant pressures on existing county council funding sources such as the capital programme of local transport improvements, and no current identified external funding sources available, an assessment has been undertaken to determine the extent of the previously designed scheme that can be delivered with the remaining available funding.
“Following this review process, and to remain within the available funding envelope, it is proposed that the design is de-scoped.”
During the meeting, Eastbourne councillor David Tutt (Lib Dem) called on Cllr Dowling to delay her decision, arguing the council needed to give residents and businesses a greater say in its next steps.
Cllr Tutt said: “I was strongly supportive of the original plans, I thought they would bring a great deal of benefit to Eastbourne as indeed the first phase of improvements had done. I was therefore somewhat surprised and wrong-footed by the report that has come to you today.
“Having been involved as much as I was … being an Eastbourne councillor and leading the largest opposition group at East Sussex [County Council], I was surprised to get a phone call alerting me to these changes and not to have heard it coming forward as something we were going to put forward [to consultation].
“If I only learnt about them through that source, I wonder how many members of the public — the wider Eastbourne community — are aware or unaware of the changes you are considering today.”
But officers warned a delay could result in the project needing further amendments, should costs continue to rise.
Cllr Dowling said: “I understand why you are asking for a delay. I understand you want to talk to people.
“This isn’t the first package we have had to [change], we’ve had to look at the whole of the capital programme. We’ve had to do it with the Hastings package, we’ve had to do it with the Eastbourne and Wealden package.
“My concern is, if we do what has been suggested … if and when it comes back we might not be able to afford what we are doing now. What we are doing at the moment is we are looking to complete the first bit.
“That bit is desperate for regeneration. It is so desperate and to hold it up, I think, would be a mistake.”
