In that year, Hastings and Bexhill Renaissance Limited (trading as Sea Space) obtained planning permission from Hastings Borough Council in that year to redevelop the site by building a single-storey structure above it on the upper promenade. This scheme added a restaurant and ancillary kitchen at the higher level. At the same time the lounge was refurbished to provide a conference centre and other function rooms.

Permission was granted against considerable opposition from English Heritage and local conservationists, concerned at the visual impact on the nearby listed buildings of Burton St Leonards.

Sea Space took a long lease from Hastings Borough Council, which is the freehold owner, and financed the redevelopment with public ‘regeneration’ funds reported as totalling over £1.946m – £1.713m from SEEDA (the South-East England Development Agency) plus £233,000 from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). 

First and second underleases

In 2008 Sea Space underlet the premises to a company Lightening Leisure Limited (LLL) under the direction of co-shareholders David Thorpe-Tracey and Allison Luzar, who introduced the Azur branding. Within a year Mr Thorpe-Tracey bought a majority shareholding in LLL, and he became sole director from December 2009. In 2012 the company was dissolved owing £345,000 to Sea Space plus approximately £280,000 to HMRC in unpaid PAYE, NIC and VAT.

A fresh company Azur Marina Limited formed by Mr Thorpe-Tracey and his new partner Dean Williamson was offered a replacement underlease by Sea Space with a term of 65 years from May 2011. Their new company accepted full repairing obligations and liability to pay an initial rent of £50,000 per annum, raised on review to £60,000. 

Once again Mr Thorpe-Tracey was appointed as sole director and in 2012/13 he largely bought out Mr Williamson’s shares. In October 2014 the superior lease was passed from Sea Space to a freshly formed ‘regeneration’ company East Sussex Energy Infrastructure and Development Limited (trading as Sea Change, later Sea Change Sussex) at a price of £500,000. 

By 2016, however, Azur Marina too was hopelessly insolvent. Its winding up in July of that year left unsecured creditors owed £312,500, including £132,000 to British Gas and £112,500 to Sea Change.

Third time round

It might be imagined that by this time the management of Sea Change would steer away from further dealings with any company owned or directed by Mr Thorpe-Tracey. But, no, a third company of which Mr Thorpe-Tracey was (or would shortly become) sole director and majority shareholder, Azur Events Limited, was approved by Sea Change to take over the lease. 

The eventual final report of the liquidation of Azur Marina referred to “an investigation into the conduct of the Company’s Director” and to a resulting “confidential” report submitted by the joint liquidators to the Insolvency Service in September 2016, which has never been revealed. But Azur Events, under Mr Thorpe-Tracey’s direction, has continued to have full charge of the business, though not, according to Sea Change’s spokesperson (see page 1), making full rent payments nor, from casual observation, maintaining its obligations to repair and decorate.

The balance sheet of the last filed company accounts of Azur Events shows net liabilities as a little under £42,000.

Sea Change has not disclosed the amount of debt on which its winding-up petition for hearing on 1 March is based nor whether there are any other creditors who may be seeking joinder.

Read about the Azur’s precarious future here.

Two buildings which formed part of the University of Brighton’s Hastings Campus, due to close in September, have been placed on the market with agents Bray Fox Smith. 

The 32,272 square foot Priory Square building on Priory Street, which presently houses student services, staff offices and teaching facilities, has been valued at £3 million.

Meanwhile the long term leasehold for 44 Havelock Road is on the market for £2 million with the brochure stating that both buildings are suitable for a wide range of alternative uses, subject to planning permission.

The final cohort of students have completed their studies this summer while around 20 of the 60 support staff members employed on the campus are thought to be facing redundancy. Others will either be redeployed to other sites or campuses, while some have found new jobs elsewhere. 

High tech equipment such as film editing and broadcast media facilities will be transferred to the university’s Brighton and Eastbourne campuses.

Investment
Both buildings were acquired by the university for nominal fees while significant amounts of public funds went towards their renovation and development costs.

But the UoB says it has invested £15 million in total into the campus to include £10 million towards the completion of its Priory Square building in 2013 and several million pounds in running costs and facilities at 44 Havelock Road.

This figure also includes the purchase of a third building, Lacuna Place on Havelock Road, bought by the university in 2012 for £2.7 million. 

This was recently sold to Hastings Borough Council for £9.4 million.

A university spokesperson said that even with the sale of its other two buildings the university did not expect to fully recoup its investment.

Closure
The UoB’s decision in 2016 to close its Hastings campus dashed hopes for the town’s regeneration and prompted outrage among the university’s staff and student unions, residents and local politicians. 

Following the announcement MP Amber Rudd told HIP: “A decision to close the Hastings Campus would be a backwards step for our town’s regeneration, especially since we have invested large sums of taxpayers’ money [£12 million] into creating the campus in the first place…I want Hastings to remain a university town and I will continue to work with Sussex Coast College, Brighton University, Hastings Borough Council, local businesses and all those who will help us to create more higher education opportunities in our much loved town.” 

History and original concept
Originally the concept was to create a ‘multiversity’ in Hastings with the University of Brighton as one of five universities providing courses at what was then the University Centre between 2003 and 2009. 

A partnership was formed between South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with the University of Brighton as lead academic provider. The aim was to provide local people with access to a range of university courses. 

SEEDA with the ‘not for profit’ economic regeneration company SeaSpace (now SeaChange Sussex) funded the renovation of the first campus building, 44 Havelock Road, while HEFCE provided an initial grant to fund teaching at the campus whilst student numbers grew.

But by 2009 the expected numbers of students had not materialised and the other universities (Sussex, Greenwich, Open University and Canterbury Christ Church) pulled out.

However, UoB decided to continue providing higher education in Hastings and subsequently bought 44 Havelock Road from Sea Space. 

In 2011/12 the university also bought the partially complete Priory Square from Seaspace and renamed the University Centre the University of Brighton Hastings Campus.

But student numbers were not sufficient to keep the campus operating sustainably. A report by Biggar Economics into the future of higher education in Hastings and Rother shows that in 2015/16 around 680 students were based at the Hastings campus, forming just three percent of Brighton University‘s total student population. There were a further 120 higher education students at Sussex Coast College Hastings (SCCH). “This falls well short of the ambitions and the target for a sustainable higher education model in the area,” the report states.

Other similar initiatives around the country have had similar disappointing levels of interest from local students in recent years. 

Canterbury Christ Church announced in 2017 that it would cease student recruitment to its Broadstairs campus from September 2018 due to students preferring to take up courses at its main campus in Canterbury rather than study locally in Thanet.

“Unavoidable”
This week, one long-term employee on the Hastings campus told HIP that while the decision to close had been met with great sadness all round, it had been “unavoidable”.

”We felt that we had done a great deal of good because we were working with students who normally wouldn’t have gone to university and it was somewhere local for them to go.

”I’m extremely sad that Hastings has gone but the university has had to make hard decisions and I don’t think they could have done anything else, to be honest. We’re living in very difficult times.”

Meanwhile, a range of Brighton University degree courses are still on offer to students at the University Centre at East Sussex College, Hastings.

PICTURE: Colin Gibson

SeaChange also specialises in upbeat promotional material. According to its website, East Sussex is a “wonderful business location. It offers low operating costs, high quality premises, vibrant business networks, close academic links and strong workforce skills”.

The Priory Quarter, in particular, which SeaChange describes as “located on the footprint of the ancient inland harbour and mediaeval priory”, is hailed as “Hastings’ bustling new town centre business and education district. A total of 150,000 square feet of office, retail and education premises lies just two minutes’ walk from the station, bus terminus, shopping centre and seafront with a range of prestigious commercial property available… the best value business location in the south east”.  

“Bustling”?
The historical and geographical data may be correct. “Bustling” doesn’t seem quite the right adjective, though, for what has been going on there over the past year and more. 

Occupancy of two of the main edifices, the University Building on Priory Square and the Havelock Road Building (the former BT Exchange on the other side of Havelock Road) is already sporadic, as the University of Brighton winds down its remaining courses and prepares to leave in the summer. Both properties will then be put on the market for sale, with no requirement that they retain educational use. The fifth floor of one major office block, Havelock Place, has been let to a radiology firm Medica since March 2015. The rest of both that block and its neighbour, Lacuna Place – a total of around 52,000 square feet – was let on 15-year leases to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in January 2018. But the DWP has not bothered to take up occupation since then, which may be accounted for (from an accountant’s point of view) by the fact that it was offered a year’s rent free by SeaChange as a sweetener.

To be fair, one substantial building, One Priory Square, has been bought and occupied as offices by the major commercial company Saga. However, an area that has lost its academic links, and will now be dominated by one office dishing out (or withholding) universal credit payments and another selling insurance and holidays on line to the over 50s, doesn’t seem quite the vibrant business network that SeaChange has until now been purporting to promote.

Campus Vision
It’s all a far cry from earlier days when John Shaw, CEO both of SeaChange and of its predecessor company SeaSpace, teamed up with then Vice Chancellor of the University of Brighton, Prof Julian Crampton, to promote the Quarter as a major satellite campus. The website of the architects Proctor and Matthews still lays out their original vision of the University Building. Completed in September 2013 as a redevelopment of the former 1930s Post Office building, at a contract price of £6.2m shared between SeaChange and the University, it is described as “the hub of the University’s presence in Hastings”. The focal point “is a beautifully executed series of perforated steel ventilation patterns, each of which reproduces a section of the Bayeux Tapestry”. These are said to “offer conceptual connections between Hastings’ past and its new self-confidence”.

The architects also boasted of the wider community benefits. The University Building “contains a broad range of teaching, administrative and social facilities, as well as laboratories, a lecture theatre, exhibition space, café and a new student centre. The building’s flexible design means that external organisations and the public can use the exhibition, theatre and conference facilities at evenings, weekends and University holiday periods while the University space above remains secure. This brings additional income to the University and knits the building into the growing cultural life of the town”.

PICTURE: Colin Gibson

In August 2014, when Mr Shaw was awarded an honorary Master of Laws by the University in recognition of his contribution to urban and economic regeneration within Hastings and Bexhill, his acceptance speech declared that it had been “a privilege to share with the University of Brighton the journey to create the Hastings campus”.

In March 2015 Prof Crampton and then Hastings Borough Council (HBC) leader Cllr Jeremy Birch co-signed a Memorandum of Co-operation under which university and council were to “collaborate on economic and social regeneration within Hastings and St Leonards”.

What now?
Prof Crampton, though retired from the Vice-Chancellorship, remains on the board of both SeaSpace and SeaChange. However, as our main story reports, there is no longer any involvement in the Quarter on the part of either of these companies. SeaChange has re-directed its energies towards netting further funds from SELEP for developments at the Bexhill Enterprise Park (down the far end of the Combe Valley link road) and at Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne. And the University, though strengthening links with East Sussex College and also heavily engaged with both primary and secondary schooling in Hastings and St Leonards through its Academy Trust, will soon be gone too as a source of student supply.

The buildings remain. Any takers?

Enter the Council…?

Last autumn, against a national background of closures and profit warnings in the retail sector, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) launched a £675m funding initiative, Our Plan For The High Street.  Among its stated aims were “strengthening community assets, including the restoration of the historic buildings that make our high streets special [and] supporting community groups to use empty properties”.

Then in December a Future High Streets Fund was unveiled, with the mission to “support and fund local areas’ plans to make their high streets and town centres fit for the future”. Expressions of Interest were invited from “places” (without any apparent discrimination as between public and private interests) “setting out their challenges and strategic approach to regenerating town centres”. The deadline for submissions was 22nd March. 

Hastings Borough Council (HBC) has been seeking written support from local businesses and enterprises for its submission headed “Imagining a future Hastings – a vision for the town centre”. Its prose bubbles with grandiose fervour: 

 “A lively, attractive, safe town centre, where the streets are buzzing, business is thriving and it’s a destination that residents are proud of. It’s become the centre for new residents who want to live in a vibrant, connected town centre attracting younger people, creatives and older people who want access to a creative vibe and life.” 

“Hastings Town Centre embraces its historical roots. It’s radical. It’s not some run of the mill town centre. It encapsulates Hastings’ old and new in one walkable package. It’s a joy to visit, a destination where people love to live, turn up, unwind and hang out. It is the centre for educational tourism based on English history – on the impact of migration, immigration and invasion.”

“Retail has become entertainment amid a riot of colour, sounds and scents, and a flavour of local foods and world cuisine. A mix of well-known brands will rub shoulders with independent businesses, providing a vibrant feast for the senses, and bringing diversity and vitality to the town centre.”

 The Priory Quarter seems to be central to HBC’s ideas.  Its letter of request for local support dated 12th March, signed off by Pranesh Datta, HBC’s Economic Development Manager for Regeneration and Culture, recognises that “the end of the dream of a town centre driven by substantial Higher Education provision has left a gap that needs to be filled. Urgently.” More specifically it refers to plans to “repurpose several of our most significant sites including University, Priory Street Car Park area and development sites”. 

It’s a space to be watched.

By Sam Kinch

The future of a valuable publicly owned asset in the heart of the Ore Valley has been cast into doubt after the company in charge of its future regeneration, Sea Change Sussex, breached their own constitution by selling it without consulting with representatives of three local councils. The land to the south of Clement Hill Road, formerly the Stills Factory site, had lain vacant since the factory was demolished.

In the early 2000s and had been under the control of Sea Change, a private company set up to help deliver millions of pounds worth of publicly funded regeneration projects. In documents obtained by HIP it states clearly that any sale of the assets must be supported by representatives of Hastings Borough Council, Rother District Council and East Sussex County Council. Despite this it appears that the land was sold recently against the wishes of the leader of Hastings Borough Council, anit’s rumoured to have gone for three times it’s estimated value. The buyer has been revealed through public documents to be Gemselect, a private developer based in Battle. At present it’s not clear what their intentions for the site may be but local residents and campaigners are concerned that it may be left derelict and “landbanked” until such time as a commercial housing development becomes viable, and that the proceeds from thdwValley and spent elsewhere in Sussex on “regeneration” projects with dubious social benefit.

Sea Change, officially Hastings and Bexhill Renaissance Limited, was established as a private company charged with delivering regeneration efforts across Hastings and Bexhill. As a private company Sea Change were able to bypass many hurdles that would have hindered the local council from delivering the projects directly.

However, campaigners have long maintained that this also allows them to operate without the high scrutiny and public accountability, which would normally accompany the delivery of such large-scale public/private investments and assets. A number of the company’s “legacy projects” have delivered questionable levels of regeneration , with the number of jobs and houses created falling far short of their own projected targets. Over the years projects begun by Sea Change or it’s predecessor Seaspace have included the Lacuna Place development on Havelock Road, which despite having been sold  to the University of Brighton last  year has remained completely empty since work was finished on it over 7 years ago. Other projects include the on  Enviro21 Business Park  Queensway which promised 500 jobs, but two years after completion had only managed to deliver 25, and the housing development behind Station Plaza, which has been delayed by 9 years and recently, owing to changes in legislation, has had its affordable housing constraints removed, likely meaning any housing built will be out of reach of most local residents who so desperately need affordable, good quality housing. A lot of the land in the Ore Valley was earmarked for regeneration as part of a programme labelled Millennium Communities, with the original plan being to demolish a lot of  housing around the Broomgrove Estate and to build 650+ affordable houses in the the Ore Valley, with a focus on sustainability and high design standards. At the time a factsheet released by English Partnerships, (formerly the Homes and Communities Agency), stated; “The Hastings Millennium Community will span six sites, joined by a proposed metro link, and will include the creation of a new Country Park. These sites cover an area of 130 hectares (320 acres), currently including such uses as housing, public open space and a former railway station and goods yard. The scheme will be developed in conjunction with Hastings Borough Council and SEEDA.” Whilst some of this was realised it seems the majority of the promised regeneration has failed to materialise, particularly in the Ore Valley.

The Stills site lies adjacent to another valuable piece of land which, by contrast, is seeing an altogether different approach to regeneration being trialed.  The Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust were recently granted a licence to operate on the former Broomgrove Power Station site for 18 months, during which time they aim to engage with local residents and organisations to discover what people locally want to see done with the site. The Land Trust are aiming to develop housing on the site eventually, but as a Land Trust they aren’t bound by obligations to deliver huge dividends to their shareholders and as such are not aiming to make huge profits. Any minor profits they do generate will be reinvested back into the maintenance and upkeep of the housing, and any other projects which eventually operate on the site. So far a number of temporary, community-focused voluntary projects have sprung up, with plans afoot for a community garden, as well as a project teaching children and young adults from the surrounding areas basic car mechanics and then allowing them to take that learning into building a banger racer which they’ll be able to take to Arlington Speedway. The members of the Land Trust are hoping that this style of ‘bottom up’ development, starting with people rather than plans, can prove successful and be used as a model for future regeneration efforts around the UK.