What future for an exceptional site?

Old Bathing Pool site exhibition/ consultation on Tuesday 29 April

By any standards the Old Bathing Pool is an exceptional site, so what is to become of it? Interest is intense, especially in West St Leonards, but the future of the Bathing Pool site is crucial to the borough as a whole, as improvement, and an opportunity for rebalancing it. So far it has been unclear what is proposed. That is about to change, on 29 April. Will the proposals harmonise with the suggestions and ideas of local people? Bernard McGinley reports.

The long wait is nearly over. Amanda Vint of Generator Group LLP said:

. . . as part of our ongoing commitment to community engagement . . . we are launching a programme of pre planning public consultation to inform local people of our proposals for the site and gather feedback which, where possible, will be used to inform our plans before their submission to Hastings Borough Council later this year.

Close interest in the future of the site continues, as the latest meeting and exhibition last January showed.

Possibilities are many

As well as the involvement of individual local residents, there are organisations and design and community groups including the West St Leonards Forum, Hastings Urban Design Group (HUDG), and Save Our Bathing Site (SOBS). Additionally the West Marina Partnership (WMP) has been formed as an umbrella organisation for those clubs and community members involved. Many know the rich history of the area and the possibility of a better future.  The Bathing Pool site is directly on the King Charles III England Coast Path, and among the sunniest places in the country.

West Marina Station, closed 1967 and demolished (Wikimedia Commons)

The exhibition

The developers have several identities.  West Marina St Leonards Ltd (WMSLL) is the name of the consortium, a joint venture company between the Generator Group and County Gate Properties, who are both members of the consortium.  (Sunley, of ‘blacklist’ notoriety, whose involvement seemed eventually to embarrass Hastings Borough Council, are no longer part of the project.)

Additionally there will be community meetings on Sunday 27 April from 2 – 4 p.m. at Marina Park, Seaside Road TN38 0AQ, in the lobby. There will be two sessions 2 – 3 p.m. & 3 – 4 p.m., each with an opening address. Their purpose is ‘to discuss and determine our community’s approach to the development’.  Afterwards there will be opportunity for informal discussion of the ideas and to better understand how the planning process works.

Bryan Fisher of WMP said:

“Everyone is welcome — anyone interested in representing a group, a street, a club, a business or a neighbourhood from anywhere in this wonderful town of ours. Please come and say hello.”

What would successful regeneration look like?

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