Consultation over Castle and Café Project
HUGH SULLIVAN
Plans for the development of a £3m plus ‘interpretation centre’ and café/restaurant at Hastings Castle will be presented to local residents at West Hill Community Centre next Thursday (6 March). A further ‘drop-in’ session will be held for the general public at the Stade Hall on Hastings seafront on Saturday 22 March.
Graham Peters (Town Deal Board), Cllr Julia Hilton and Troika partners on West Hill
The funds are being provided as part of the ‘levelling up’ Town Deal under which a total of over £24m was allocated to Hastings in July 2021. The following year, the Town Deal board hit upon development of new infrastructure around the castle as its “flagship, signature project”, though the form it would take has only slowly emerged.
Last August, following competitive bids, a local design consortium, Troika Projects, was selected as project partner with Hastings BC. Their remit is to turn the derelict West Hill Café into a high-class restaurant plus café, to provide a new “interpretation visitor centre to retell the story of Hastings Castle”, and to install a platform lift that will provide step-free access from the existing West Hill Lift “to all spaces”.
Adjustments to an earlier version of the project were approved by MHCLG (the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) last September, including the approval of Troika as project partner and extension of the time for delivery of the project up to March 2027.
In November, the Town Deal Board were told that due diligence checks had been completed and that a Grant Funding Agreement would be drawn up. It seems to have taken a further three months for this to be completed and signed, following a process described last week by a spokesperson for Hastings BC as “both parties having been through standard legal protocol”.
The spokesperson added that “a revised timescale is being worked out and will be shared soon” – perhaps at the next Town Deal Board meeting on 11 March, when Troika are scheduled to present their next project update. It was previously anticipated that the building would take 18 months.
Graham Peters, chair of the Town Deal Board, said last week; “I’m looking forward to seeing Troika’s exciting plans and vision develop into a reality, elevating the castle and café space into a leading destination for the town.”
Leader of Hastings BC, Julia Hilton, said: “I’m looking forward to seeing their vision and plans presented at the initial public engagement events. The involvement of residents and visitors is key to this project, and commitment to collaboration in the planning process is something we all agree on.”
The drop-in session at the West Hill Community Centre will be between 6.30 and 8.30pm on 6 March; at the Stade between 12 noon and 4pm on 22 March.
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