'Realistic alternative' in SOS masterplan

The plan - prepared by Save Our Seafront campaigners (SOS) - has been prepared for the campaign by member John Hodson.

SOS says it has been designed to preserve the integrity of the seafront but offers "realistic and attainable" options for the town centre.

It warns: "The SOS alternative is less easy to accomplish than the Sea Space proposals which simply involve picking low-hanging fruit quickly and moving on.

"Ingenuity and effort will be necessary, and a readiness by SEEDA to acknowledge the strength of local opinion by addressing the restrictive conditions attached to the residual funding of 3.5m....

"In the event that SEEDA is unable or unwilling to apply its funding more flexibly, and to depart from its formula, it is the SOS view that Bexhill should withdraw from the Task Force, surrender the ever-decreasing funding and manage its own affairs."

The Alternative Masterplan says: "In the absence of a large open site in the town for car parking use, the only logical alternative solution must be in the immediate construction of a large high-rise multi-storey car park, close to the town centre, with lifts and easy access to the town. The obvious first choice of site must be the Sainsbury's site, which should incorporate a footbridge over the railway into Western Road.

No recent approaches to the company to table this proposal are known of, and given the Sea Space assessment of a 30-year delay, it is assumed that none have been made."

The alternative masterplan suggests that a financial incentive should be offered to the company by SEEDA, possibly on a joint venture basis, to enable the achievement of the project by the earliest possible date.

If Sea Space have no remit for car parking provision, it suggests that Rother should handle all discussion with SEEDA and Sainsbury's.It says the alternative choice of location for car parking might be the telephone exchange / vacant Kwik Fit depot area, served by two roads, close to the footbridge and leaving the Sainsbury site for other development.

SOS believes inward investment would increase if access to the town and parking were improved and town economy boosted by kick-start grants for shop-front improvements to make Bexhill a "niche market."

It believes Bexhill will not attract major retail chains which are already entrenched in Eastbourne and Hastings. "It should, however, be possible to attract some of the smaller national companies if the appropriate opportunities can be seen to be available in the town.

"The ultimate objective in the regeneration of the town centre should be the pedestrianisation of the shopping centre, initially in Western Road, followed in due course by Devonshire Road.

"This would realise the full potential of the Devonshire Square piazza, currently a cause of local criticism."