Old Bathing Pool development: will the community voice be heard?

There was a steady throng of people passing through the West St Leonards Community Centre last Saturday to view suggestions for development at the Old Bathing Pool site. As developers look set to present their plans to HBC, will the local community get a seat at the table? Dee Williams reports. 

Generator Group in partnership with County Gate Properties took a five-year lease on the West Marina Site on Seaside Road with a view to providing a mixture of housing and leisure facilities. They describe their vision in glowing terms.

“The overarching aspiration is to develop a high-quality environment, through characterful and intelligent design, quality construction and complimentary landscaping, whilst focusing on integrating into the existing surrounding physical and social infrastructure.”

Bryan Fisher, a member of the Community Team of West St Leonards Neighbourhood Forum, who set up the exhibition along with Hastings Urban Design Group, explained that this is the last piece of green open space between Dover and Portsmouth. As such, local people are keen to ensure that their aspirations are in the mix.

The red line signifies the development site which looks to be a straightforward open plot but there are a number of restrictions which have so far hampered progress. At the far west point, the old carwash site has now been cleared and there was a preference shown by all participants for any high-rise building to be within this zone.

To the immediate east of that is a children’s play area and a car park. This area must remain open to provide access for Southern Water, as underground tanks and machinery are sited below the green turf landscape which borders the car park. This limits potential development to the far east of the site, but this too has issues as the old bathing pool was simply dismantled underneath the plot with the walls pushed into the sunken pool.

On the seafront are rows of beach huts currently rented out by HBC. Nobody knows whether this area will be included in the project.

The developers are three years into their lease and their plans must be agreed before the lease expires. They have carried out survey work and believe they are in a position to submit proposals to the council. Unfortunately, HBC has not been particularly transparent about discussions they have had with the developers, leading to rumours that they wish to build five high-rise units on the eastern end of the site. This would block the view for existing residents and is the least preferred community option.

Lucy Mason, who has led a campaign to ‘Save Our Bathing Pool Site’ (SOBS), described her opportunity to discuss the needs of the local community with HBC as disappointing. She explained that following her detailed statement to the councillors no comment was made and the chair simply moved on to the next point on the agenda.

The local community are not giving up that easily though, and Anna Sabin, Chair of the Community Team of West St Leonards Neighbourhood Forum, has a plan to get them a seat at the table. Anna informed me that the forum is recognised under the HBC neighbourhood plan scheme as described below.

“Neighbourhood Development Plans (also known as Neighbourhood Plans) are plans prepared by the community that, once adopted, will form part of the Statutory Development Plan for Hastings. ” (HBC website)

The forum is compiling a feasibility plan with the help of Locality and they are hoping that, once presented to HBC, community views will be given equal consideration.

“We provide specialist advice, peer-learning, resources and campaigns to help every community thrive, including to take over and run assets for the benefit of local people. We believe that when communities come together, they can transform lives and build a fairer society.”  (Locality website)  

The main purpose of the exhibition was to engage and clarify the local community’s view. There was a board of sticky notes for participants to record their opinions once they had examined the various options. The woman in front of me stated that she didn’t want any of the options as they would all increase traffic and she was against that. She wanted it to stay the same, but that is not one of the options on the table.

Anna Sabin saw it as a wonderful opportunity to provide leisure facilities to the area of West St Leonards and to bring in new retail outlets and opportunities to grow the economy. She was also keen to introduce better transport into the area, making it easier for people to travel there by train, bus or bike.

There was much talk of reinstating an open-air pool such as Sea Lanes in Brighton, or a tidal pool directly into the sea. There were designs for spas and sports centres, splash pools and bicycle hire, but they are all dependent on continued maintenance funding and at present nobody knows if that would be forthcoming from the developers or the council.

Lucy Mason from SOBS said, more realistically, that providing some green open space is left post development, then local people could put projects out to tender for things such as coffee shops and windsurf providers once investors have a better idea of how the area would suit their business.

Money talks, and the developers are in the driving seat with an eye on their profit margins. HBC would be keen to acquire some social housing to reduce their waiting list while the majority of local people would be happy to see development to the west of the site, providing that the east remained open to the public. It is all to play for.

 

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