SPOTLIGHT: How people power saved Fisherman’s Green
The controversy over plans to earmark the seafront site for housebuilding involved thousands of residents’ objections and the intervention of a Cabinet minister. It has now been taken off the list. We unpick what happened and talk to the women who successfully campaigned against the proposals Fiona Mullen and her neighbours had prepared for a […]
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SPOTLIGHT: Revamp for bandstand seats
More than 800 teak folding chairs are being sanded and varnished by offenders ready for the re-opening of the bandstand in the spring. A group working unpaid as part of the community payback scheme are painstakingly sanding and painting each chair behind the bandstand. A spokesman for Eastbourne Borough Council said: “It’s not actually costing […]
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SPOTLIGHT: Everyday life in the past unearthed
IF YOU are annoyed by litter, food prices and unfounded anti-vaxxer theories, you will have a surprising amount in common with previous generations in Eastbourne going back nearly 200 years. Keen amateur historian Warwick Davis has spent years painstakingly researching what everyday life was like in the town for Victorians and for people between the […]
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SPOTLIGHT: Bandstand conservation takes centre stage
THE LIFE of Eastbourne’s iconic bandstand should be extended by decades with extensive repairs to the stage and roof, the borough council’s conservation advisory group heard last night. The existing plywood stage floor has wet rot and is now deemed to be dangerous, according to a report to the group on the Grade II-listed building. […]
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SPOTLIGHT: Why does the Winter Garden still look so tatty?
LONG delayed work on the dilapidated exterior of the Winter Garden will finally go ahead next year, according to Eastbourne Borough Council. Refurbishment of the landmark building, near the theatres and art gallery in the Devonshire Quarter (DQ), has fallen victim to the impact of Covid on local government finances, the council says. A revised […]
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SPOTLIGHT: The ancient farmland which may disappear under 700 homes
John Pritchett pauses beneath the avenue of centuries-old oaks at Mornings Mill Farm with panoramic views of the South Downs towards Butts Brow. He looks up into the tree canopy and thinks back to when he worked the farm in Lower Willingdon. “I used to walk down this path after work in summer and there […]
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REVIEW: Where the grass is always greener
There is one modest oasis of green among the baked yellow-brown lawns which lie dormant under the relentless sun. The grass at Motcombe Gardens is still the correct English summer green. It is a startling sight to drought-weary visitors as a hosepipe ban comes into force. I only noticed this verdant phenomenon, pictured below, when looking […]
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SPOTLIGHT: Digging for history
Stand high on the South Downs at Butts Brow and you can try to imagine what it was like for our predecessors thousands of years ago. Their gaze would have taken in sparkling sea on two sides and rolling hills, curving down to valleys. Forests would have covered much of the land but the shape […]
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