The long-awaited renovation of Fort Fun on Eastbourne seafront is under way as the landmark seafront site is cleared ready for work to start.
I met the people from the two organisations due to take leases at the site to find out about their plans and what stage work was at.
Each lease will be for five years with Eastbourne Borough Council, the landlord, but neither has signed a lease yet.
Who is involved?
Wingrove House, which runs other leisure and hospitality venues in the area, is renovating the existing large building to recreate a soft play area for younger children with café and toilets.
The company also plans to renovate the mini golf course on the eastern end of the site and will dismantle the outdoor climbing frame near the road, which is too dangerous to use.
The rest of the site, where the water slides and trampolines were next to the beach, will be operated by Defiant Sports, which helps people overcome barriers to taking part in sport.
It plans to install accessible outdoor play equipment, a wellbeing garden, accessible beach tracks and a platform for games, possible water access for wheelchair users and, eventually, a four-court indoor sports hall.
Fort Fun went into liquidation in January 2016.
Wingrove House
Ben Porter, a director of Wingrove House, stands at Fort Fun in Eastbourne gazing around on a sunny, breezy day and estimates his company will be spending at least £100,000 on the site.
As an example of costs, he points over to a dilapidated ice cream kiosk near the centre of the site, saying that will cost £1,500 just to remove.
The company has already spent £15,000 on metal roller shutter doors to secure the main building.
And it will cost £3,000 to run a new cable for electricity to the seafront kiosk at the south-western edge of the site: the previous cable was stolen and stripped for copper.
The site has been plagued with vandalism two or three times a week with damage to the mini golf area (above), signs, a decorative totem pole and security lights.
Perimeter gates are repeatedly broken down (below).
Last week, Defiant Sports shared a video (July 3) showing how donated sinks and toilets for use in accessible facilities had been smashed up and scattered across a wide area.
“There have been challenges,” says Ben, with a wry smile at his own understatement. But he seems undeterred by the task ahead.
“We’ve already spent quite a lot of money – the plan now is to really start work on it. In the next two or three months, there will be a big transformation.
“It’s a commitment but I also feel we can bring a facility back to life. We feel there is not a lot of soft play for younger children in the area.”
The indoor soft play area, café, toilets and kitchens are being fitted out with a planned opening in the autumn.
“We are very confident it will be open by October,” he says, adding that he hopes the miniature golf will be reinstated in time for next year’s summer season.
Ben also plans to dismantle the outdoor climbing frame (below) to reduce the attraction of the site for bored teenagers.
Wingrove House operates nearby Treasure Island adventure park, the Beach Deck restaurant, cafes and kiosks along Eastbourne seafront, the Plough & Harrow pub in Litlington, as well as Wingrove House hotel and restaurant in Alfriston.
The Treasure Island membership – currently £6 to £7.75 a month depending on age – will be expanded to include Fort Fun for a small additional cost yet to be decided. There will also be a single entry ticket option.
Defiant Sports
Loretta Lock started Defiant Sports six years ago as a Community Interest Company, which is run on a not-for-profit basis with the help of National Lottery and other funding.
She did so when her son Callum, now 26, was interested in tennis but could not find anywhere suitable to play because he suffers from cerebral palsy, visual impairment and is autistic.
Defiant has a hub at nearby Sovereign Harbour with sports facilities, a community area and sensory room in a converted retail unit but Loretta hopes to move this to Fort Fun in Eastbourne once work is complete.
But the major stumbling blocks are that the council has yet to connect mains water and electricity to her section of the site and has still not told her whether or not she needs planning permission.
She says she has not heard from the council about the planning issue since March. Without that, she cannot raise the larger amounts of funding required to build indoor facilities.
Loretta is clearly determined and resilient but is becoming increasingly frustrated by the delays in installing essential services and the planning permission issue.
“I can’t do anything until we find out whether permission is required. My concern is that the council is holding back from putting the services in due to cost,” she said, standing next to the old water feature area.
“It is quite frustrating that I have some of the funds secured but I can’t use them because I am now allowed to put anything on the site.
“I am not prepared to sign with a date on the lease when I have no idea when electricity, water and planning will be sorted. I can sign and put a date on when we know it’s viable.”
The steel slide structure was removed at no charge by Best Demolition and the helter skelter was donated to Knockhatch Adventure Park, near Hailsham.
Loretta is planning to repurpose the remaining glass fibre curving sections of water slide as planted flower beds around the edge of the site.
“We are delighted to have this site, but we really need to be able to get on with it now. What can I do?” she shrugs, looking at the material still to be cleared.
Eastbourne Borough Council and Fort Fun
We asked Eastbourne Borough Council last Thursday (July 6) when electricity and water will be connected to the site and at what stage the decision on planning permission is.
A spokesperson said that the council could not respond ahead of a council by-election in Meads on August 3 due to restrictions on publicity and communications under local government law.
The Eastbourne Reporter has said to the council that guidelines from the Local Government Association state that “a council can continue to discharge normal council business – including determining planning applications, even if they are controversial” during a pre-election period and that councils can “use relevant lead officers rather than members for reactive media releases”.
We told the council our request is for information, not publicity or communication of a party political nature.
UPDATE:
In a statement to the Eastbourne Reporter, a council spokesperson later said: “Officers are waiting for a quote for a new sub [electricity] main to feed Defiant’s area of the site. They are chasing it.
“In regard to the water, this is connected to the planning considerations… However, I don’t have a timescale for those decisions. They are in the pipeline along with other applications.”
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Please can local councillors get involved? It’s not fair that the council are holding up the site