The event, hosted at the Hastings Coastguard Station, brought together RNLI lifeguards, community first responders, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, Sussex Police, Coastguard teams from Hastings, Bexhill and Rye, and Pett Level Independent Rescue.

The session allowed responders to share knowledge, understand each other’s equipment, and practise lifesaving techniques ahead of the busy summer season. Lot Astbury, the senior coastal operations officer for HM Coastguard, welcomed the exercise as a “valuable chance to exchange water safety insights, familiarise ourselves with each other’s equipment, and rehearse the lifesaving skills and techniques we rely on”.

Paul Freathy, the chairman of Hastings lifeboat station, said: “Training alongside our partner rescue services is invaluable. It strengthens our ability to work together effectively during incidents and ensures we are ready to respond when it matters most.” He noted that the volunteer crew give their time freely to train and maintain the highest standards, “all with one shared aim of saving lives at sea”.

Leaseholders of the 97 residential flats at 44 Havelock Road, formerly the Vive Hotel, gained a significant victory in the High Court in London last Thursday. After two hours of legal argument, an insolvency judge, Sir Anthony Mann, dismissed applications made by the administrators of the superior landlord companies, Havelock Property Limited and Havelock 1 Limited, for a possession order in respect of the common parts of the building, as well as for an injunction to prevent trespass by ‘persons unknown’.

Costs were awarded in favour of the leaseholders, who were not formal parties to the applications but were represented in court by counsel Alex Adamou. The judge agreed that their interests would have been potentially compromised by the form of order which the administrators were seeking.

The companies are already in actual possession of the common parts of the building, including its entrance lobby. As soon as they declared insolvency in May last year, the administrators installed security guards to control access. From that point on, the majority of leaseholders, being investors who have never set foot in Hastings but bought the studio flats for renting out (initially through the Vive Hotel or otherwise), have had their access cut off.

Even those few who are owner-occupiers or who installed assured shorthold sub-tenants have had access barred since January this year on the grounds of alleged fire risk. East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service served a notice in that month stating that there had been no formal risk assessment and no alarms in place.

The administrators have also cut off water and electricity, so that the flats are in practice uninhabitable.

However, a consortium of 86 leaseholders was last month given leave to apply to take over management of the building through an RTM (Right to Manage) company which it controls. A hearing has been scheduled in May at which these leaseholders will pursue their own claims to restore full rights of access, both to the common parts of the building and to individual flats, and to force the companies in administration to delegate maintenance and repairs to the RTM company.

COURT EXCHANGES

In court on Thursday, counsel representing the companies in administration told the judge that prior to February there had been three separate instances of “intruders” gaining entry to the building (despite the presence of security guards), though it was not clear what their intentions had been. There was no evidence that they had any ‘squatting’ or similar purpose, and the judge suggested that they were more likely to be “opportunistic” entrants into a derelict building. An injunction against ‘unknown persons’ to prevent such incursions was an exceptional remedy (generally used against organised groups of travellers or protest campaigners who might be dissuaded by a threat of contempt for breach), and not appropriate in this case.

The judge also saw no justification for imposing limitations over the leaseholders’ access to the common parts of the building.

Counsel for the companies told the judge that the administrators’ overall purpose remains to sell their reversionary interest in the building 44 Havelock Road and to recover claimed service charges from the leaseholders on behalf of the creditors whom they represent. However, it seemed to be accepted that the building is not saleable in its current derelict state, while the repairs and maintenance required to restore it could only be funded on the administrators’ side, if at all, after long-winded pursuit of service charge demands which are in dispute.

On the other hand, the leaseholders’ RTM company can, and presumably will, raise their own funds to undertake the repairs and maintenance. 

In these circumstances, and given the scepticism which the judge showed towards the administrators’ concerns – which he described as “overblown” – they and the leaseholders would seem to have a common interest in co-operating so as to get the building back into habitable use as soon as practicable.

One of the two co-administrators, Ian Goodhew, told HIP after the hearing that the companies “are not restricting the RTM company”, though he did not explain why it took them four months (from service of a notice of claim last October) to concede in principle its right to manage. 

Mr Goodhew also said: “From the outset, dialogue was entered into with the leaseholders and an invite given to them for the purchase of the premises. No offers have been forthcoming.”

44 Havelock Road – Property Rights Explained

The building at 44 Havelock Road was formerly used as a telephone exchange, and the freehold is still owned by the BT Group. Havelock Property Limited has a lease of the whole building for a term of 131 years from 2003; the whole of the beneficial interest in this lease is held by an associated company, Havelock 1 Limited. Sub-leases of individual studio flats have been granted for a term in excess of 100 years to each of 97 individual leaseholders.

The companies were placed in insolvent administration in May last year but remain the superior landlords of the leaseholders.

In December the joint administrators filed a progress report stating that their aim was to realise the value of the superior leasehold interest for the benefit of creditors, including collection of alleged service charge arrears from the leaseholders. For their part the leaseholders have set up an RTM (Right to Manage) company with a view to managing the building themselves in future.

JOEL CHESHIRE

A fire at the disused former convent site on Magdalen Road in St Leonards required a major response from emergency services last Sunday (1 February) afternoon. Police have confirmed they are treating the incident as suspicious.

Crews from East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene shortly before 2pm. Five fire engines were deployed, as were police and ambulance units and specialist equipment’ to deal with the blaze. 

Firefighters worked for several hours to bring the fire under control and extinguish remaining hot spots. The fire was fully extinguished shortly after 5pm. No injuries were reported.

Once the incident was made safe, the scene was handed over to Sussex Police, who have launched an investigation into the cause of the fire.

Under the council’s draft Local Plan, the convent is classed as a nationally significant heritage asset, with any future proposals required to prioritise conservation and deliver the long-term restoration of its listed structures.

Early inquiries raise suspicions about how the fire started. Officers are appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time, or who may have noticed any unusual activity, to come forward with information.

A police spokesperson said: “It is believed the fire was started deliberately. An investigation is ongoing.

Witnesses, or anyone with any information, are asked to contact Sussex Police online or call 101 quoting reference 47260020695.

The public have been reminded that the building remains unsafe and the police have urged residents to stay away while investigations continue. This is due to possible falling debris and the presence of asbestos.

PAUL MCLAUGHLIN

Emergency services evacuated residents from the Queens Apartments in Robertson Terrace, Hastings on 2 December after detecting dangerous levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in first-floor flats. The incident, traced to the Grand Pera Restaurant on the ground floor, led to sixteen people requiring medical attention and the declaration of a major incident.

The East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was alerted by the Southern Gas Network and responded to the restaurant just before 6.45pm. To facilitate the response, police closed the A259 seafront road.

Fire crews searched and evacuated sixteen flats on one side of the complex. Some required forced entry to confirm they were empty. Fourteen occupants were triaged by the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb), which recommended hospital checks for all. Eight refused and remained on scene, while six were taken to Conquest Hospital for treatment. Due to the number of casualties and the impact on hospital resources, SECAmb declared a major incident at around 9pm.

The source was quickly identified as a diesel generator being used by the Grand Pera Restaurant. The generator was isolated, the property ventilated and the building was declared safe for residents to return by 10pm.

It was later revealed the restaurant had installed the generator in Harold Place to power refrigerators after its electricity supply was disconnected by E.on. The disconnection was due to the failure to pay an outstanding bill of over £66,000. The generator is understood to have been running continuously for three to five days prior to the incident.

Hastings Borough Council on-call officers assisted with the evacuation. With support from the Local Authority Emergency Planning Officer, rehousing plans were prepared but ultimately not required. The building’s managing agents secured the property and arranged to contact any absent residents who had been exposed, advising them to seek medical checks. Emergency services left the scene around midnight.

Sue Mitchell, owner of the nearby Pebble Beach Spa, was among those evacuated after being called to re-open her premises for the response effort. She was only allowed to return once CO levels normalised.

The Council’s environmental health team has announced an investigation. This comes after local residents claimed they had made numerous complaints to the department over the past six months regarding suspicious smells and other concerns since Grand Pera took over the tenancy, alleging they never received a response.

When approached by HIP, Hastings Borough Council stated it was “limited in what we can say because there’s an investigation on-going,” declining to comment on the number of complaints or prior inaction.

Helena Dollimore, MP for Hastings, Rye and the villages, thanked the emergency services and said her thoughts were with affected residents. She welcomed the council’s investigation, stating any lessons must be learned, and urged everyone to ensure they have a working carbon monoxide alarm. “This invisible gas can be a silent killer without one,” she said.

The Grand Pera reopened last Friday (12 December) after an Environmental Health inspection. The electricity had been reinstated and the generator removed. The investigation into the carbon monoxide leak is ongoing.

Hastings town centre, Alexandra Park and areas in between were again under water last weekend following another sustained period of heavy rainfall – around two inches in just a few hours. The same streets that suffered last January’s devastating floods – South Terrace and Denmark Place, in particular – were submerged on Saturday morning. The emergency services evacuated residents and closed the nearby Priory Meadow Shopping Centre. 

The clear-up, co-ordinated by an emergency planning team from Hasting Borough Council (HBC) in conjunction with staff of Southern Water and conducted in the main by impressive numbers of workers from the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (ESFRS), achieved rapid results in comparison with January’s experience, from which all parties had clearly learnt.

However, by the time you read this, the same low-lying areas in the town centre may have flooded yet again as a new storm, Ciaran, was forecast to bring further heavy rain to the south coast on Wednesday night and Thursday.

It was clear as dawn broke on Saturday morning that a new flood crisis was shaping up. Local residents called the emergency services as water levels rose. Police and ESFR staff started arriving on the scene before 9am. A team from Southern Water arrived by 10.30am, but they had to wait a further three hours before pumping equipment leased from Selwood, a pumping solution company, could be put in place. The draining of the surface water got under way by 2.30pm.

Danny Hunt, a Field Performance Manager with Southern Water who was directing the emergency pumping efforts, said it was too early to speculate on what caused the flood. However, he did indicate that the outfall pipe at Denmark Place had become blocked because of a build-up of beach shingle.

This blocked pipe has also been identified as one of the causes of the flooding in January. That’s according to a final report into it, prepared by Ardent Consultant Engineers on behalf of East Sussex County Council (ESCC), which was published just days before last weekend’s repeat. This report, delayed because of Southern Water’s failure to supply the inquiry team with full data, does not unambiguously pin the blame for the flooding on any one single cause, but makes it clear that partial restriction of the outfall at Denmark Place, resulting from a build-up of beach shingle, was a major factor.

Ownership of the culvert downstream of Alexandra Park to the outfall at Denmark Place has been in dispute for several years. Southern Water finally agreed to take responsibility for the entire length of the culverted watercourse in September 2022, after which they installed two additional pumps to increase capacity to pump water onto the beach whilst they conducted improvement works.

Prior to this, the company had installed a manhole to allow cleaning of the culvert at South Terrace as part of its bathing water quality initiative. This manhole flooded both in July 2021 and in November 2022, before spilling serious devastation in January this year.

As part of its investigation, Ardent sought evidence of what flood risk assessment had been carried out before the installation of the manhole. The report notes that: “Southern Water has yet to locate documentation which provides [this] assessment.”

The report also refers to “significant discussions” between East Sussex CC and Southern Water since January aimed at avoiding repetition, and to a number of mitigation, repair and preventative actions which have been identified as part of these talks. These include replacing the manhole along South Terrace with a sealed and bolted manhole cover and the installation of sewer level monitors on the foul system together with ‘non-return devices’ on the private laterals of flooded properties. Southern Water is said to be committed “to work together on improving the understanding of flood risk in the catchment” and “to undertake any identified actions as a priority.”

Some victims of last weekend’s repeat devastations are less than impressed – see adjacent report.

Local Conservative MP Sally-Ann Hart said it was “desperately upsetting” to see the devastation caused by the flooding. She said she was in constant contact with the emergency services when the flood warnings were issued, and she was a visible presence in the town on Saturday afternoon, meeting people affected. On Sunday morning she spoke with Lawrence Gosden, Southern Water CEO, urging the company to join the Sussex Resilience Forum, the body which brings together all the emergency services, councils, utilities and other essential public and voluntary services to work in partnership to support the local community during incidents and emergencies. 

She also said she would press for more government resources for the town to deal with the emergency, and that she would be looking to ministers to extend the Flood Re government insurance scheme which covers residential properties in flood risk areas, to local businesses.

Helena Dollimore, Labour’s candidate for Hastings and Rye said it was “awful” to see the impact the flooding was having on residents and businesses and that Southern Water “needed to get their act together.” She called on the water company to offer emergency compensation grants to stop businesses going under and residents facing major financial hardship.

Two new vaccination centres have been opened in Hastings & Rother to supplement those at Kings Church (on the Ridge), Sidley and the Conquest hospital. Qualifying residents of Rye, Battle and the rural areas of Rother are being directed to Etchingham Village Hall, which started administering vaccine doses on 20th January. That’s a 36-mile round trip from Rye, but there are non-profit-making community transport operators who can be called upon to assist with ferrying clients. From last week, the Laycock Pharmacy in Ore also started a vaccination  programme.  

Both trained vaccinators and potential trainees are being urgently sought by East Sussex Healthcare Trust. They say they are looking for people who can work “as flexibly as possible”, including evenings and weekends, across “multiple sites”, including mobile and temporary units.

Meanwhile army personnel – members of the RLC (Royal Logistics Corps) – have been called up as supplementary ambulance drivers to boost SECAmb, the South East Coast Ambulance Service, whose catchment includes Hastings and Rother. There will be an initial deployment of 36 RLC drivers, due to start driving “within days” from depots at Gatwick and Polegate, after the Service had reported patient delays amidst “unprecedented demand”. Firefighters may also be diverted into ambulance-driving, according to Joe Garcia, SECAmb’s executive director of operations, and East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has confirmed that it is happy to give support in this way. A SECAmb spokesperson said that the need arises from the number of regular staff off sick with Covid or having to self-isolate. There is no suggestion of army vehicles needing to be deployed.

According to government figures, the number of confirmed cases in Hastings in the seven days up to last Monday 25th January was 319 – a drop of 23% from the previous week. In Rother it was 238, a drop of over 37%.