Scaled Down Castle Project Will Need Fresh Approvals
HUGH SULLIVAN
On the Hastings Town Deal website, the project entitled Hastings Castle World Heritage Destination is still described as “our flagship signature project for the whole Hastings Town Investment Plan”.
The stated aim remains to transform the castle from “a neglected, inaccessible ruin” into “a modern interpretative attraction” targeting 250,000 visitors a year compared to a pre-Covid average of 30,000.
In June 2021, the Department of Levelling Up (DLUHC), which is providing the funds and monitoring their allocation, confirmed the £24.3m Town Deal award to Hastings. Of this, £3.5m was allocated towards an originally estimated project cost of £5.65m for the castle. The balance of £2.15m was initially shown as being provided by “matched funds” from Historic England and other contributories.
A business case was subsequently formulated and approved – by the Town Deal Board’s Investment Panel in January 2023 and by DLUHC some weeks later. However, Historic England have denied that they ever agreed to match-fund development proposals. Their role is only to administer applications received for Scheduled Monument Consent, which would be required for any renovation work at the site. Nor have any other contributors of funds been identified as coming forward.
WEST HILL CAFE
On the other hand, Hastings Borough Council (HBC) announced last October that it had repossessed the West Hill Café, adjacent to the castle site, and was calling for Expressions of Interest from “experienced developers and operators” to put forward ideas and proposals “to restore the West Hill Café to its full potential” as part of the Town Deal Castle project. On 22 November, HBC’s then Health and Culture portfolio holder Andy Batsford told a meeting of the full council that 25 bids from national and local businesses had already been received, including plans to transform the landmark site and link it with St Mary in the Castle at the bottom of the Castle cliff.
What happened to these bids? Cllr Batsford is no longer at the helm, and no explanation has been offered. Instead, on 25 March, HBC announced a new initiative in the form of a Request for Proposals: they seek “an experienced partner within the Cultural Assets sector” to redevelop and re-purpose the West Hill Café, which remains vacant. The aim, it’s said, is to provide a “quality food and beverage facility as well as a springboard for innovative education and experience telling the story of Hastings Castle”.
HBC’s press release continued: “Proposals should also incorporate access improvements to Ladies Parlour, with improved setting and landscaping of the surrounding castle grounds, acknowledging and enhancing the existing biodiversity of the site.”
FUNDING POT REDUCED
A spokesperson for the council has explained subsequently that “the funding mix and levels for the project will be changing” in the wake of responses to the Request, which must be received by 3 June. It was admitted that the overall funding pot was likely to be less than the original business case, and that “there are no other sources of public funding to match against the £3.4m [sic] Town Fund monies for the project at present. Once a new delivery partner has been agreed, HBC will be submitting a project change request to DLUHC for approval. This will cover all financial changes in the project scope and delivery”.
This itself demands some explanation. In the spring of 2023, a scheme was put to the Town Deal Board to repurpose St Mary in the Castle as the main visitors’ entrance to the castle above, connected by a lift or escalator up the rock face. This was reported at a Board meeting as “considered” by its Investment Panel, but rejected on the ground that DLUHC would regard it as a “new project”, excluded from benefiting from the £24.3m overall award. So what is not “new” about the latest intended project changes?
Café Dereliction
Hastings Borough Council has confirmed that the West Hill Café will remain vacant pending its likely demolition in the autumn as part of the Castle Project redevelopment.
It was repossessed from its previous tenant last October “in a terrible and dangerous state including rotting floors”, according to an HBC source. Apparently it would require so much work to make safe that even a pop-up café operating over the summer months would be wholly unviable.
HBC has declined to make any comment upon why and how its Estates Office, as landlord of the premises over several years, allowed them to fall into this condition.
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