Affordable Home Construction Behind Bexhill Road
Work has started to erect 16 affordable homes for Hastings Borough Council on waste ground to the rear of 419-447 Bexhill Road. Builders Boutique Modern, based in Newhaven, are using a modular method of construction in which the components of the homes are built within their factory, then shipped to the construction site for assembly.
Among their workers are prisoners from Ford Open Prison, whose inmates are being given the opportunity to apply for construction jobs under a scheme supported by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Ministry of Justice. With supervision and training, they are being given the chance to learn new skills that will increase their opportunities of long-term work after they are released.
Outline planning permission for the development was granted to the council by its own planning committee in 2019, despite objections that the land lies within a flood plain–at risk of inundation both after heavy rainfall and from high tides–and with a further history of subjection to sewage leaks. After an earlier refusal of permission on these grounds, the ground floor levels throughout the development were ‘strategically raised’. Three of the nine councillors on the committee again opposed the grant of permission, but a majority accepted experts’ advice that an incorporated array of flood mitigation measures would be effective. Other planning conditions were discharged last month allowing building to proceed.
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