Update - 19 December 2021

A very warm welcome to our second blog update.  Thank you once again for looking in.

This week, we've been considering housing development and the impact of recent national events on the local political outlook.  And we were very pleased to receive some messages from society followers.    

First, housing.

Let's face it.  Planning is never an easy issue for local authorities.  No community likes to see its open space built on. Or nice old houses with big gardens knocked down and replaced by ugly flats or infill.

But Councils are in a tricky position.  Their officers must work on projections of local population growth and set targets for new housing.  Elected councillors for their part know there are few votes in building over green spaces.

The current controversy in the Eastbourne area is Morning's Mill Farm.  You see its fields on the right when you take the older of the two main roads out of town, just as you leave Willingdon for Polegate.  There's been application for a couple of years now - by the Vine farming family - for permission to build hundreds of houses on the farm's land.

It's no exaggeration to say such a development would have a dramatic impact on the appearance of the area - effectively joining up Eastbourne and Polegate in one suburban sprawl.

The farm is actually the other side of the northern boundary of Eastbourne Borough.  The decision-maker is therefore Wealdon District Council.  Their Councillors have now rejected the application - twice - despite their officers telling them there are no technically permitted grounds for doing so.  In this, the Councillors are surely doing the bidding of those who elected them.  

Unfortunately, for the elected local politicians, and for the campaigns influencing them, I fear their celebrations will be short-lived.  The matter will most likely be resolved in court.  And the reasons given by Councillors for their refusal will, I suspect, be picked apart by developers' legal teams.

We shall see.

Second, North Shropshire.

It's been a long and exhausting week in national politics to be sure.  The LibDem victory this week has got the pundits looking for parallels in the 1990 Eastbourne by-election - in which David Belotti of the LibDems overturned a similarly big Tory majority.  This outcome arguably marked the beginning of the end for Mrs Thatcher.  Will it be the same for Boris Johnson?

Maybe.  

But what preoccupies us more is the significance of the North Shropshire result for Eastbourne.    We're pondering all those Brexit voting, Tory voting switchers to the LibDems.  They didn't stay at home (much).  They did not choose the Reform party, or whatever it calls itself at present.  They went to the centre.

This confounds my assumption that Brexit might hamper LibDem progress in the town.  If this trend holds, even in part, it's encouraging news for Josh Babarinde and his team.  

However, we must complete the picture.  

David Belotti's tenure as Eastbourne's MP was short-lived.  Less than two years later, the town returned a Conservative, with a comfortable majority.  It remained blue (although becoming more marginal at each election) for all of eighteen years!

And as for Belotti himself, his post Parliamentary career was - how shall I put this?  - eventful.  He became the CEO of Brighton and Hove Albion football club and oversaw the sale of its Goldstone Ground - a set of events which almost destroyed the club.

So my advice to Josh Babarinde - don't put Belotti's photograph on your leaflets....

To end this week's update, we were delighted to receive a couple of messages from Society followers.

Magnus from Fulham let us know of an enjoyable evening he'd spent visiting Meads.  A pint of Harvey's at the Pilot, then Lobster and Corn soup at Xing Fu.  Magnus noted a surprising number of inhabited camper vans parked along St.Johns Road.

Thanks, Magnus, for your entertaining message.

Ian from Cambridge drew our attention to a fascinating BBC documentary entitled "Surgeons:  At the Edge of Life", in which several medics with an Eastbourne background, including Ian himself, were featured.

Ian was brought up and educated in the town, and makes regular visits here to catch up with mother Mary and sister Jean.

Ian's message reminded us - if indeed we needed reminding - of the tremendous debt we owe our health professionals - both now and in less problematic times.  I will be doing my best this next week not to add to their workload

Happy Christmas to you all.

Update - 12 December 2021

A warm welcome to the first of the society's blog updates.  Thank you for looking in.

Our society is for those who are interested in Eastbourne, who've lived in the town in the past or who live there still.  We're trying to understand what's happened over the years to make it the place it is today; and what is going on now which might shape its future.  

We're looking at the big things.  We're not interested in trivia (well, not much).  

This weekly update will run through what we're currently looking at.   

First thing:  the Council's three big projects, financed by Central Government's levelling up money.  The Council's going to tart up the end of Terminus Road, and make it a pedestrianised outdoor dining area.  It's going to put down some kind of art trail around the town.  And it's going to put a tourist centre at Black Robin Farm near Beachy Head.  

You can see what's going on here.  The Council wants to make Eastbourne a more interesting, fun place to visit.  It needs the visitors, and it needs them to spend money.  

On the subject of money, the pandemic has hit the Council's finances hard.  No tourists or conferences.  Yet an increased demand for social care and other services.  Central Government stepped in with cash (not the same as above), but on condition its accountants review the position.  They've told the Council it needs to do more than rebuild its tourism and conference offer.  It needs to sell off things.  I don't know what the Council owns, except for the Eastbourne Downs farms.  It's not going to want to go back there surely.  This is going to be tricky.

Second thing:  there's a big consultation underway about the town's sea defences.  Climate change and sea level rise is going to mean breaches, and thousands of houses built on the flood plain will be at risk.  The Environment Agency will probably want to raise the sea wall east of the pier, going down all the way to Cooden.  It might think about whether the levels - the marshy ground through which the train line runs - can accommodate occasional storm surge water.  Watch this space.

Third thing: another consultation, this time about Brighton University's future in Eastbourne, although we suspect it's a done deal.  This marks a probable end to a line of further education in the town.  Eastbourne will feel its loss - the students will go; I guess the buildings will either be knocked down or renovated for housing.  

The history of education in the town is interesting - from the art school which educated Tirzah Garwood and her husband, Eric Ravilious, to the emergency use after the war of empty private school buildings to train up teachers.  The ghosts of a hundred plus such schools haunt many Meads and Upperton roads.

Fourth thing:  we're watching the political situation in the town.  The Liberal Democrats have chosen their candidate to fight the next General Election, and what a CV he has (OBE in his twenties for social action).  But he and his team mustn't underestimate the challenge, as I'm sure they won't - the Brexity, Conservative vote here is resilient.  The Libdems' best chance is to harness growing Labour support towards the loan of tactical votes. And the candidate will need to do all he can to get himself noticed (which, with his "Eastbourne OBE Roadshow", he is already surely doing). 

We would have said that Eastbourne was probably out of the Liberals' reach a few weeks ago - because the Labour and Green vote had already gone their way.  Now we're not so sure.  This writer holds no political affiliation (nor an Eastbourne vote for that matter).  So we'll just attempt an impartial view on developments.  We know one thing, though - it's going to be a right battle.  

That's all for now.  Do feel free to comment or feed back.  In the meantime, have a great week and stay safe!