No redevelopment for council HQ, say leaders

An East Sussex local authority has no current plans to redevelop its headquarters, its leaders have confirmed.

On Monday, Rother District Council's (RDC) cabinet discussed a report setting out options for the potential revamp of Bexhill Town Hall in Bexhill-on-Sea.

The report followed on from a decision taken last year, which saw members agree to spend £45,000 on investigating the feasibility of building temporary accommodation on the site.

Joe Powell, head of housing and strategic assets, said options had been assessed and "doing nothing for now" would be the best outcome.

The site in question includes 1 and 2 The Villas, the former Autolec premises, a pay-and-display car park and the council's office buildings in Amherst Road.

The report also mentioned possibly converting The Villas into a residential development, but, as they were currently being leased commercially, this would result in a loss of income.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, councillors also heard how this had only been possible after work was carried out to bring the building "into a lettable condition".

Councillor Teresa Killeen described the lease as "making a positive contribution at the moment to our bottom line".

The report noted other factors for the decision, including uncertainty around whether the site will be needed after Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), which is expected to see RDC and the county's other councils replaced with a new unitary authority.

In addition, officers said a direct development of the land would be "financially challenging", unless it would result in the provision of temporary accommodation.

When discussed last year, the feasibility work had initially been presented as part of the Town Hall Renaissance Project - a redevelopment scheme involving the renovation of the existing town hall building, alongside plans to build flats and new office buildings on the wider site.

However, this project was refused planning permission in October 2022 and is no longer going ahead.

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