Bexhill Road: 190 New Homes On A Flood Plain
Hastings Borough Council (HBC) announced last week that Homes England has confirmed its grant of up to £6.9m to develop the first tier of open space at Bulverhythe behind Bexhill Road. The funding is part of the Local Authority Accelerated Construction programme, and is intended to help deliver around 190 new homes at this site.
The council, which owns the land, has indicated that 76 of these homes (40%) will be made available as ‘affordable housing’, providing local residents with the opportunity to buy a home through shared ownership or to rent through a registered provider at an affordable price. Affordable rent will be based on the Hastings Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate.

Cllrs Cox and Batsford take a walk in Combe Valley
PICTURE: David Dennis
A planning application will be made in due course to Rother District Council. The land lies within Rother’s jurisdiction, even though owned by HBC. Before that, there was due to be a further public consultation event yesterday (31st October), and HBC will share “emerging proposals” followed by a Pre-Application Forum at a later date. Further information can be found at www.hastings.gov.uk/new-homes.
Local opposition to these plans has concentrated on their location on land that has regularly flooded in the past. Local ecologist and recently appointed steward at the country park, David Dennis, believes that the whole ecology of the park may be put at risk if the Tier 1 site is effectively removed from the flood plain – see his impassioned article below.

Cllrs Cox and Batsford take a walk in Combe Valley along with Friends treasurer William Ackroyd
PICTURE: David Dennis
Mr Dennis recently took the council’s lead member for housing, Andy Batsford, and fellow councillor Ruby Cox, who is chair of the Combe Valley Countryside Park community interest company, on a two-and-a-half hour ramble through the park to demonstrate the value of its existing role in sustaining local wildlife. It seems that he succeeded in this, but not in persuading either of them that the Tier 1 development should not proceed – see Cllr Batsford’s equally passionate article alongside.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
I walk past the area in question most days. Along part of boundary is an overgrown hedge with many plastic bags caught on thorns. The snagged litter might tempt some to pull out the plants. Please don’t. Many sparrows freqent the hedge. An environmental audit should establish towhat extent they also nest there.
The Mad Hastters Tea Party flourishes in this town…councillors who simply do not understand the damage they are proposing to wreak on this area…the floods are not just little puddles – the entire land floods extensively…who else but lunatics would give even a moments consideration to this crazy plan.
Why is this council so determined to devastate all our beautiful green spaces?