Reader’s letter: Objections to ‘towering five storey hotel’ in Hastings fall on deaf ears

In areas of town planning in Hastings, a cavalier disregard for residents and community is evident.

Under the convenient cloak of Covid over the last two years, Hastings Borough Council has pushed ahead some rather secretive plans to build an 84 room Premier Inn hotel on the Cornwallis Street Car Park, a site designated for 10 houses that would have been welcomed by our largely residential community in this area.

Local people have had no say in this matter- we simply live here!

The council was apparently determined to insert a towering five storey hotel in our midst, blocking light from several buildings, a totally overbearing, out of keeping modern block in a Victorian enclave comprised of houses, a characterful market, a few small business, two cosy pubs and a Samaritans hall.

The lure has clearly been financial, and has permitted Hastings Borough Council not only to cast aside the critically urgent need for housing recognised in their Local Plan, but to forge ahead on plans for a Premier Inn without consulting the local community in any way.

Councillors at the planning meeting admitted that failing to consult local residents was a grave mistake, an omission they were not proud of . However, no apology was made to our applicant objecting to the plans on behalf of petitioning residents, or to accompanying ‘silenced’ objectors.

Our applicant was allowed to speak for five minutes on behalf of objectors.

There was a long silence - no councillors asked questions or commented.

See also: What do other residents think about the plans?

Our points on our residential community, carbon neutral building, architecture, ecology, the huge strain on utility services and drainage, let alone the current unmet housing targets, were clearly too embarrassing. So was the fact that a hotel was only permissible on this site according to HBC’s amended, not yet agreed Emerging Plan.

How do you rush a huge hotel through planning in advance of your Emerging Plan? How do you dismiss huge loss of light for some residents as reasonable, let alone their falling property values? And why put a large hotel in an inappropriate site, with purely tokenistic nods to future proofing carbon neutrality, in a residential area?

We were not allowed to speak,or ask questions.

Councillors were asked to vote. Naturally the kind councillor who spoke on our behalf was not allowed to vote, a conflict of interest. We thank the two councillors who agreed that this was a flawed plan, a misuse of land designated for local housing.

Despite the admission of other councillors that there were problems with drainage capacity, water, housing, right to light, parking, local jobs, etc..., they voted, ‘on balance’ in favour of the hotel: 8 to 2.

How could they do otherwise when a huge amount of money had already been spent, and the hotel was almost a ‘fait accompli’?

There are far graver and bloodier attacks on democracy taking place as I write, matters of power and tyranny, invasion and war, life and death, which we all pray can still be de-escalated and resolved.

And yet this little act of disregard and dismissal in a small town leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

Have you seen?: Pictures from the Hastings rally in support of the people of Ukraine

Do the council dismiss us as a bunch of people who don’t know or care about our community or the area we have chosen to live in?

We are a wide range of people - care and national health workers, teachers, students, fisherwomen, therapists, unemployed, IT specialists, lecturers, recovering addicts, civil servants, artists, writers, musicians, retail salespeople- you name it, we are it.

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