Controversial Sovereign Harbour Plans Continue To Move Forward

Controversial development plans for Sovereign Harbour will continue to move ahead, after further discussion by Eastbourne councillors.

On Monday (October 16), Eastbourne Borough Council’s planning committee undertook further discussion of a trio of applications for Site 7a — a strip of land between Pacific Drive and Pevensey Bay Road.

Put together, the three applications are for a 66-bed care home, a building containing 57 retirement-living apartments and an Aldi supermarket.

The applications had previously been approved at a committee hearing in August, but were brought back as officers wanted authorisation to impose additional conditions, mostly on technical matters around flooding and drainage.

The course of the applications saw some concerns raised by Conservative councillor Nick Ansell (Rattton). He said:

“With so many issues being devolved to officers and the current things going on, why was this brought to us in August when there were too many issues still to be resolved?”

In response, Leigh Palmer, the council’s head of planning, said:

“There were matters still in discussion — county SUDS, as evidenced by the report tonight [and] the county ecologist was still in flux at the time of that meeting — but the principle of the redevelopment it was felt [correct] to bring to committee at its earliest opportunity.

“What we didn’t want to do was to take another month, two months, until all the consultees were in place and then committee to refuse it on car parking numbers or something like that. 

“So we brought it ahead of these issues being resolved so that we can agree the principle and then the matters of detail … can be sorted out in good time.”

The committee’s charman Hugh Parker (Lib Dem) said:

“Having established the principle early on … the detail that follows has to be resolved and should anything not work out and not be resolved correctly then that would stall the application until it was anyway. 

“So it kind of doesn’t matter either way.”

The additional conditons also included a ‘golden brick’ clause preventing the Aldi store from opening until the other two schemes reach a certain stage. This had been part of the original proposals, but was expected to form part of a legal agreement rather than a planning condition. 

Councillors also heard how the applications had been referred to the Department of Levelling up Housing and Communities, but were told the scheme did not meet any of the thresholds required for government assessment.

Officers noted how this process is separate from a request lodged directly with Michael Gove, the secretary of state for housing, by Conservative ward councillors Penny di Cara and Ksharma Shore last month. 

In their request, the councillors had called on Mr Gove to call in the Aldi portion of the scheme to appeal. The crux of their argument was that the scheme should not have been approved as the land had been set aside for ‘employment uses’ within local planning policy.

All three schemes — and particularly the Aldi proposals — have proven to be controversial among local residents, with more than 700 objections submitted across the separate applications

For further information see applications 220849, 220850 and 220852 on the Eastbourne Borough Council website.