The Source Park, one of the world’s largest underground skateparks, has been forced to close its doors with immediate effect due to urgent health and safety concerns. The shock announcement was made last Friday evening (24 July) at the start of the peak summer holiday season. The closure only affects the skatepark, which will remain shut until at least 2027. The hospitality businesses in the Courtyard will remain open as usual.

The Foreshore Trust, which owns the land on which the Source Park sits on behalf of Hastings Borough Council, has allocated £1.5m for emergency repair work to prevent water ingress and work to the concrete structures around the Source Park and Courtyard and the promenade in the immediate area. The tender process to find a contractor will start later this summer, and it is envisaged that the first phase of work should be completed in 2027, with further work taking over two to three years to complete in a phased approach. 

The closure, which came without warning, has drawn sharp criticism from former Hastings Borough Councillor Judy Rogers, who questioned why action was not taken sooner. She said: “It has been known for some time that this work was needed, so I would question why it has been left till the point when a forced closure is necessary at a point in the year when we have the most visitors in town and it’s school summer holidays.”

The Source Park was opened in 2016, on the site of what was once a Turkish baths complex built in the 1870s. It sits below sea-level and has always had maintenance problems with dampness and water ingress. 

In March, as part of the perpetual battle against the elements, the Foreshore Trust agreed to allocate £50,000 to prepare a tender pack to identify the scale of the works needed to address water ingress from the promenade and concrete repair works, including the “removal of loose or potentially dangerous areas within the main skate park” and to prepare tender documentation for future works.

At a meeting of Hastings Borough Council’s Charity Committee on 22 June, Kate Darbyshire, the Foreshore Trust Manager, presented councillors with a report setting out plans to allocate up to £1.5m over three years to undertake the repair in phased stages. They were told that a “phased approach would minimise disruption to tenants while allowing the effectiveness of the initial remedial works to be assessed before progressing to further internal repairs.”

The phased approach to the repair works was abandoned, however, following the discovery of “falling concrete and crumbling fire exits” as reported by the Source Park owners on Facebook, which prompted the Foreshore Trust to close the skatepark immediately. A spokesperson for the Trust said: “Safeguarding this key asset is a priority, and it is unfortunate that the required work means the park must close for a period of time. We apologise that the closure has come at such short notice; this is due to health and safety concerns at the park that made it necessary to close immediately.”

The closure of the skatepark has also forced the postponement of the popular Battle of Hastings BMX event, originally scheduled for September. The event organisers say the competition will now take place in 2027, with a new date to be confirmed once the repair schedule has been finalised.

Responding to concerns about pre-paid memberships of the skatepark, Source Park posted on Facebook that they “will contact everyone with memberships in due course.”

The Foreshore Trust – the charity which manages land from Rock-a-Nore to Bulverhythe on behalf of the public- has come under heavy criticism over its handling of controversial plans to develop and extend the amusement park on the Stade.

Michael Lee who owns Flamingo Park Ltd., wants to extend the area, building a second storey on top of the main amusement building whilst extending the enclosed area by half its size again.

Further proposals include the building of a new boathouse and jetty with a café and a pirate ship.

Mr. Lee leases the land under a sub-tenancy agreement -which does not expire until 2032 –from Luxury Leisure, which runs the amusement arcade and leases the entire area from The Foreshore Trust.

But despite a petition of over 1000 signatures and objections from Hastings and St Leonards Coastal Users Group (CUG) the plans were set for approval by the council, which then delayed a decision due to an inaccuracy in the application at its planning meeting last Wednesday.
Opponents of the scheme argue that the plans represent ‘a land grab’- essentially development by stealth- of public land which was left by Queen Victoria in 1893 to the council to hold in trust “for the the common use, benefit and enjoyment of all Her Majesty’s subjects of the public for the time being and forever.”

They say that therefore, by right of the Foreshore Trust deed, the public are entitled to access the entire area. If the scheme is approved, the extension of the amusement area will mean a larger area is enclosed which will encroach upon the existing footpath – forcing it to be almost half the width, and less visible.

In 2010 East Sussex County Council refused to designate the path, which currently runs across the site from East Beach Street by the listed bus shelter south of the beach side path, as a right of way, because, it said, under the terms of the Trust the public had a right to access the entire site and that designating a footpath would limit these rights.

“The public are granted permission to pass and re-pass over the land but not to occupy the land. It has remained as one single piece of land that is to be enjoyed by the public.”

The Foreshore Trust – which nets an annual £1.4 million in revenue from parking charges and other rental streams – is supposed to act independently of the council and heed the advice of the Coastal User’s Group. It is formed of three executive councillors and an independent protector who “acts as whistleblower and watchdog against the Council acting in breach of trust and to guard against situations where a conflict of interest is not being managed properly.”

But among the many objections to the scheme there was just one letter of support –from Councillor Sue Beaney– who failed to declare that she is also Chair of the Foreshore Trust. She said the proposed designs would enhance the area, adding: ‘However, the right of the public to access the area and walk through it must be maintained. I would ask that if possible, a condition be added that the walk-through should be accessible at all times and that there should be no gate that should prevent this.”

The Foreshore Trust itself has made no official comment on the plans.

Earlier this year Mr Lee applied for a lawful development certificate which would have given him permission to build on the area surrounding the boating lake. This, however, was refused by HBC in April of this year.

But back in April 2017 an application for a similar certificate to develop the Go-Kart track was refused by HBC, but this decision was overturned by a planning inspector in March of this year following an appeal.

According to the Coastal User’s Group and the Old Town Protection Society Mr. Lee is now set to build a 22 metre-high Ferris Wheel on this plot and needs only ‘landlord’s consent’ from the Foreshore Trust to go ahead.

Anne Scott of Old Hastings Protection Society said: “Planning is one of the few powers that HBC have, even if it is eroded sometimes by Government directions. In the case of The Stade, it would be good if this was used for public benefit on public land, before being used for commercial advantage for just a few months of the year.

“However, the Foreshore Trust are not looking after the land for public benefit and are ignoring the advice of the CUG, which they are supposed to heed.”

Ms. Scott told the planning committee meeting on Wednesday 10 October:  “Given the lack of concern shown by the Foreshore Trust over this application and its implications, we feel the Trust are unfit to protect our rights on the path. We depend on this committee here tonight to uphold the public benefit rights and safety over this land by refusing the application.

Green party spokesperson and fellow petitioner Julia Hilton said she believed the public had a right to see the terms of the lease between The Foreshore Trust and Luxury Leisure –and their implications for Mr Lee as a sub-tenant: “I have increasing concerns about the fact that the Foreshore Trust is really another branch of the council. Its only trustees are councillors and the only protection given to ensure its independence is a protector appointed by the Charities Commission who has not seen fit to comment on this particular issue, and doesn’t seem very easy to contact.”

“No contact details are given for him on the Foreshore Trust part of the HBC website. The other ‘overseer’ body is the Coastal Users Group which is supposed to be consulted by the Trust on all decisions that affect any of the Foreshore Trust land. This failed to happen in this case, which is also worrying.”

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