'I personally think this town’s going to die'

Eastbourne Borough Council plans another £2.7m in savings

Eastbourne residents have expressed shock and anger after the council announced further cuts to local authority spending.

Eastbourne Borough Council has said it needs to make an extra £2.7m in savings, despite including over £3m of cuts in the 2024/2025 budget.

Among the cost-saving measures to be discussed at a council meeting on 18 September is reducing funding to the Towner Gallery, closing the heritage centre at Beachy Head and scaling down sea front services.

Chris Holden, manager of the All Decked Out restaurant on the seafront, told BBC Radio Sussex: "I personally think this town’s going to die."

Stephen Holt, the leader of the Liberal Democrat-run council, has blamed the cost of funding temporary accommodation for the homeless, which he said is costing Eastbourne £4.5m a year.

He said he is hopeful of help from the new government, which he believes is willing to work with local authorities.

"What we really need is for them to fully fund - certainly for this year and for the future - the cost of temporary (homeless) accommodation, which is devastating local authorities."

The operator of one seafront restaurant says Eastbourne's public toilets are already in an unsatisfactory state

Mr Holden was critical of the state of facilities already provided for visitors.

He said: "We get asked every single day about the state of the public toilets.

"There’s been no hand wash soap in there for at least two weeks. We even have people coming down the seafront asking us for napkins because there’s no toilet paper in there.

"We’ve had coach trips, to go to the toilet we’ve had to send them past two other coffee shops so it directly impacts business."

'Better plan'

Joe Hill, the director of the Towner Gallery, said the cuts could harm Eastbourne's economy.

He said: “We won’t be able to do some of the large scale projects, like the Turner Prize, that contributed £16m to the local economy.

"And it will mean that we will have to do more activity that’s charged and ticketed.

"It just puts barriers to access for culture that we’ve worked so hard to protect.”

Other people in the town expressed concern about the council's financial position.

"It's wrong, this is just a short term solution" said one.

"Hopefully they'll have a better plan along the way, but for now I don't think there's anything we can really do about it."

Another said: "I understand there needs to be cuts, but what they need to realise is what's going to annoy the public."

Council leader Stephen Holt is hopeful the council will get more funding from the new government

A borough council spokesperson has said focus of the new savings would be on discretionary services rather than statutory services that the council must provide by law.

Among the savings councillors will consider first are:

*A reduction in grant funding for the Towner gallery

*Closing the heritage centre on Beachy Head

*Transfer of operation of conferencing and catering at Devonshire Quarter

*Changes to the operation of local theatres

*Selling assets and further efficiencies in events and seafront services

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said the government would "fix the foundations of local government and work closely with the sector" to do so.

A ministry spokesperson said: “We will get councils back on their feet by getting the basics right - providing more stability through multi-year funding settlements, ending competitive bidding for pots of money and reforming the local audit system.”

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