FORSAKEN CAFE TO BE OFFERED FOR CASTLE PROJECT
HUGH SULLIVAN
Hastings Borough Council (HBC) announced on 3 October that it has “taken back possession” of the West Hill Café. It is understood that this was the outcome of a long-running legal battle with its former leaseholders, who failed to operate it in a serviceable manner over a protracted period.
According to Cllr Andy Batsford, the council’s lead member for health and culture, the council is now “looking at what can be done to bring the Café back into use in the short term”. However, he has also made it clear that there is a different, much loftier plan afoot – to offer the site as a reception area for a revitalisation of Hastings Castle as a World Heritage Destination. The plan is due to be reviewed by the Hastings Town Deal Board at its meeting next Wednesday, 25 October.
When in June 2021 the Board first unveiled its Town Investment Plan to spend £24.4million of levelling up funds to support regeneration of the town centre, it proclaimed renewal of facilities for viewing the Castle as its “flagship, signature project”. At a cost of £5.65m, of which £3.5m would be allocated from the government pot, the remainder to be sought from English Heritage and/or other public sources, what was described as “a neglected, inaccessible ruin” would be transformed by the development of “a modern interpretative attraction” into a World Heritage Destination.
Over the near two-and-a-half year period since then, there has been a dearth of information forthcoming either from the Board or from HBC, who are the Castle’s freehold owners, as to what this attraction would entail. The Town Deal website, supposedly maintained by the council media team but noticeably avoiding any update relating to the Castle project since last year, explains only that it will be “telling the story of the Norman invasion and its impact”.
In January this year, a report to the Board indicated that the “business case” for the project had been approved by its Investment Panel (a body mainly consisting of council officers) and was expected to be endorsed shortly by the DLUHC (the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities), but no details of this were aired. HBC’s then Marketing and Major Projects Manager, Kevin Boorman, told the Board that approval of the council’s cabinet would “now be sought”. However, he admitted that “firm proposals and drawings are needed” and that a “project design team and architect will be appointed to get some firm plans costed up”. An update would be given to the Board “once the project is worked up a bit further”.
“EXPLORING OPTIONS”
No mention was made of the Castle project at the Board’s next meeting on 27 April, save for dismissal of the idea of expanding the project to include a link with St Mary-in-the-Castle at the bottom of the cliff below, nor at its subsequent meeting on 5 July. It seems that Mr Boorman’s retirement in the summer left, temporarily, no council officer engaged to make any progress. However, a spokesperson for the council told HIP later that month that “indicative costs” for the project had come in “very significantly higher than expected, well over the budget” and that “we are currently exploring options as to how best to proceed”.
It’s not clear for how long HBC has regarded the repossession and subsequent re-use of the West Hill Café as a favoured option. But Cllr Batsford is clearly enthusiastic in pursuing it. “I personally think that the Café site has been and will always be key for the hopes of the Town Deal Board to see the Castle as a flagship regeneration project,” he said last weekend. “Without a welcoming launch pad to sell the vision, the tours, merchandise, and tell the story of the castle, then I believe the project falls at the first hurdle. A re-imagining of the site is so important. This will include an exciting catering offer as well as a staging post for tours, interpretation and management of this key site.”
The café is located at a prime spot overlooking the sea, the harbour arm and the Old Town, and it is unclear whether locals and regular visitors to West Hill will be equally happy that it should be subsumed in the grandiose Castle project rather than reclaimed as a more general public amenity. Perhaps that will be considered at next Wednesday’s meeting of the Town Deal Board.
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Some of this makes sense.
The castle needs a decent visitor centre if it is to be a serious attraction (and St Mary in the Castle at the bottom of the hill needs a new function which should somehow be incorporated into the plan).
However, the cafe site would be wasted as a mere visitor centre for the castle. It’s a stunning site, fabulous views, great accessibility via West Hill lift. It should be a cafe/restaurant aimed at both local and tourist trade. There’s nothing else in the area bar the Plough pub. Managed properly, it should be a little goldmine.