St Mary: Community groups lodge “expression of interest”
A community “consortium” promoted by Hastings Commons and Hastings Creatives has lodged a formal “expression of interest” in response to the intended disposal of arts venue St Mary-in-the-Castle by owners Hastings Borough Council (HBC).
As previewed in HIP 218, the consortium’s proposal is for HBC to link St Mary with Hastings Castle above as the castle’s entry point and visitor centre, connected by a lift on or within the cliff face. The document submitted to the agents headed “The Levelling Up Lift” suggests three alternative technical options – an “Up and Over” vertical lift structure with a bridge to land at the top; an “Inclinator” using lift technology but set at an angle close to the cliff face; or a “Tunnel and Shaft”, consisting of a short tunnel from the vaults of St Mary into the cliff plus a lift shaft within. Initial costings for these alternatives have been provided.
The two venues are historically connected by the fact that there was an original church of St Mary within the castle walls before its rock base subsided. And the idea of re-linking them physically in the 21st century doesn’t just arise from the desire to save the arts venue. It’s also mindful of the hitherto quite separate scheme, the supposed “flagship” project of the Town Deal, under which over £6m of public funding is set to be channelled into turning the castle into a “world heritage destination”.
Town Deal equivocation
Members of the Town Deal Board heard at their last meeting on 18 January that the business case for this project was approved by its Investment Panel in December. However, reports given at the meeting by HBC officers involved in progressing its development were not only vague but seemingly equivocal. Ian Sycamore, External Funding Manager at HBC, said that the business case approval “does not exclude other ideas or concepts that may come up in the future to support the project”. Pranesh Datta, Economic Development Manager, described the project as “not currently good value for money and has high risk but could be turned around and the benefit cost ratio improved if additional funding could be provided”. Kevin Boorman, Marketing and Major Projects Manager, told the Board that the project “is still in its very early stages…[It] is still a concept and firm proposals and drawings are still needed…A project design team and architect will be appointed to get some firm plans costed up”. It seems plain from these reports that there remains an opening for the St Mary consortium to get their alternative concept considered. But they will have to move swiftly.
The commercial agents instructed by HBC for the disposal of St Mary, Dyer and Hobbis, had set a date of 4 February for “expressions of interest” to be submitted –as the consortium did (on the final day). If the recent nomination of the building to be registered as an Asset of Community Value is approved, that would effectively result in a six-month moratorium in the disposal process. However, the potential to have Town Deal funding re-directed, which is what the linkage proposal depends on, looks to have a much shorter time span.
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