BUILD BACK BETTER

A Plan For The Future of Eastbourne

This has been a strange and unsettling year. Lives lost, companies capsized, and the world in disarray. But as we step back out into the world to pick up the pieces, we think there’s an opportunity to hold things up to the light and ask if there’s a better way of doing things. 

At Let’s Go Sussex, we’re planning a series of thought pieces. Films and articles that encourage new ideas about Sussex. How we can protect what we love about this beautiful county and revitalise areas and communities that are struggling. We’d love to hear your thoughts on what we can do to help Sussex thrive. 

To get your brains turning, we’d like to invite you to look at Eastbourne town. There’s a sight familiar to many English towns, two giant department stores vacant and a no-man’s land of struggling or empty shops around it. Instead of this moribund space, imagine a park surrounded by homes and a tree and garden lined promenade leading up from the station to the sea-front. 

There’s a demand to build new homes and living areas, with Government setting local towns ambitious housing targets. Before we build on more green land, we think the vacant shops and dormant high streets can be adapted and remade as mixed purpose living areas with parks, homes, and restaurants. Bring communities back into the heart of our towns.