Rebecca Maer, Eastbourne Reporter
Huw Oxburgh, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter
Eastbourne council leaders agreed spending cuts of £2.7 million for this year at a meeting last night of the cabinet amid jeers and heckling from residents in the public gallery.
The borough council’s ruling Liberal Democrats agreed to move ahead with immediate cuts, including the closure of the Beachy Head Story heritage centre and reduced funding for the Towner Gallery.
The cuts also include the transfer of operation of conferencing and catering at Devonshire Quarter, changes to the operation of the theatres, sales of assets and further efficiencies in events and seafront services.
Discussion about potentially closing most of the town’s toilets and replacing them with a community scheme, in which hotels, pubs and cafes are asked to allow public use of their toilets, was met with cries of “Shame on you” from the residents at the meeting.
The council says it needs to find £2.7m of additional in-year savings, on top of the £3m already agreed as part of its 2024/25 budget.
Cabinet members also agreed to hold a six-week public consultation on further cuts.
These include moves to ‘rationalise’ the current number of four pools at the Sovereign Centre; increase parking fees; and changing the management of the town’s public toilets.
Cabinet members spoke about the pressures on the council’s finances from its homelessness spending. According to the council, it has been spending £4.5 million annually on temporary accommodation. The annual income from domestic council tax is £9.9 million.
Last year, Eastbourne Borough Council had hosted a summit of councils to discuss rising temporary accommodation costs, which resulted in an open letter to the government urging it to take action.
This summit was referenced by council leader Stephen Holt (Lib Dem), who said: “Other authorities are finding the same challenges, the same difficulties and indeed have implemented the same savings that we are currently looking to consult upon. That is really important for people to remember.
“If you are frustrated, if you are angry, that is nothing compared to the frustration and anger I have for the last government who failed to heed my warnings and the warnings of this council and the 158 other councils who signed the open letter and the 50 councils who visited Westminster.”
However, these arguments saw pushback from objectors, including Gaynor Sedgewick of Friends of Eastbourne Seafront. Ms Sedgewick said: “Your very passionate speeches about homelessness and so on makes us all feel a great sympathy and empathy for these people.
“But I don’t think we should forget that the council has also been, for many years in the opinion of a lot of us, squandering money, wasting money [and] making bad decisions about money, so when Covid hit wasn’t in a very good position.”
Ms Sedgewick went on to express her organisation’s opposition to the potential changes to the town’s public toilets, raising fears the proposed move to a ‘community toilet scheme’ could lead to closures.
She said: “With no or limited public toilets people will not want to visit Eastbourne. It will deter people from even taking a walk in case they can’t find a toilet, affecting their health and wellbeing.
“This will damage Eastbourne as a tourist destination and have a major impact on us as residents.”
Similar concerns were raised by Dennis Scard of the Meads Community Association and Conservative councillor Kshama Shore, who argued any closures would disproportionately impact on older members of the community.
In response to these comments, Cllr Holt, above, said “no final decision” had yet been made on changes to the town’s public conveniences. But he also confirmed that the council would not be taking steps to reopen toilets damaged by vandalism during the consultation process.
He said: “We will be undertaking a consultation. Part of that consultation will of course involve an equality impact assessment as well.
“No final decisions have been made and we are not proposing to close the public toilets unless they are vandalised. During that consultation period the public toilets will remain open and … accessible. But of course if they are vandalised we are not going to, at this stage, pay for something a consultation may close.
“Last year the council spent £300,000 just on the toilets and an additional £100,000 on repairing the toilets — there wasn’t a week last year where one of the toilets wasn’t vandalised.
“In my view and the view of the council, what we need to do is work with community partners … to find a way of delivering public toilets and accessible toilets for people which are good quality and aren’t prone to vandalism.”
