Developer Seeks To Remove Community Centre From Housing Scheme

Monday, 3 March 2025 15:40

By Huw Oxburgh

A community centre could be removed from a St Leonards housing development, as a result of proposals set out in a new planning application.

In an application validated by Hastings Borough Council last week, the Chartway Partnership Group is seeking permission to create two additional apartments within its 151-home development at the former Ashdown House site in Harrow Lane.

The two additional homes would be created by converting space originally intended to be used as a community centre.

The application includes a report setting out the developer’s unsuccessful efforts to find a user for the community space, which occupies part of the ground floor of a three-storey apartment building known as Block One.

The report reads:

“Chartway Partnerships Group reached out to 13 groups and organisations in total to engage with them on the proposed community space at Ashdown House.

"This involved multiple emails, calls and follow ups, but not every group we contacted responded or were able to get involved in the consultation.

“Ultimately, after some initial interest from Education Futures Trust, we concluded the 12-week consultation period with no firm interest from an end user for the space.”

The report goes on to set out how this initial consultation, which took place in October 2022, was followed-up with additional approaches to the identified community groups in June last year.

Chartway said none of the groups had expressed interest in becoming the end-user of the proposed community space by the end of this follow-up consultation.

The report concludes:

“In light of this, our recommendation moving forward would be to consider amending the condition for the space and considering other possible users, which would be of greater benefit to the local area.

"As we found from the feedback we received, a community space would only add value to Hastings if there is genuine demand for the space and it has a sustainable future.

“From our discussions, we conclude that there is no such interest in the space at this stage. Chartway Partnerships Group will continue to engage with these organisations to allow them the opportunity to comment on emerging plans for Ashdown House.”

The developer had submitted almost identical proposals in April last year, but this earlier application was withdrawn in August for unspecified reasons.

For further information on the proposals see application reference HS/FA/25/00098 on the Hastings Borough Council website.