Councillors approve cuts in £2.7m savings plan

A total of £5.7m will have been cut from Eastbourne's budget this year if plans go ahead

Councillors in an East Sussex town have voted to go ahead with another round of spending cuts.

Eastbourne Borough Council cut £3m from its 2024/2025 budget and says it now needs to save another £2.7m.

The council will close the Beachy Head Story heritage centre, reduce seafront services and reduce funding for the Towner Gallery by £100,000 after plans were voted through at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Council leader Stephen Holt said the measures were to combat the town’s £4.5m annual homeless accommodation bill.

Other savings approved include transferring the operation of conferencing and catering at Devonshire Quarter to another provider, changing the operation of local theatres, and selling assets.

The council will also start a public consultation on the future of the town's public toilets, proposing to introduce a community toilet scheme.

Last year, providing public toilets cost the council more than £300,000, while the cost of repairing vandalism was more than £100,000, according to council documents.

As well as this, the public will be consulted on street cleaning services and increases to car parking costs.

Mr Holt is calling on the government to cover the costs of Eastbourne’s temporary accommodation.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government previously told the BBC it would “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”.