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 long battle to save the seafront site at Fisherman’s Green from being built on.
The area opposite where they live is right by the beach. It is home to basketball and tennis courts, businesses including a fresh fish shop and crab shack, and social clubs.
A petition they launched in mid-January amassed nearly 6,000 signatures such was the strength of feeling – and the matter was raised in Parliament by Housing Secretary Michael Gove.
The issue was then quickly resolved when he said it could be taken off the list of suggested sites with no sanction for Liberal Democrat-controlled Eastbourne Borough Council.
Fiona, a retired academic, was thanked profusely by both Liberal Democrat and Conservative borough councillors when she attended a full council meeting last month.
What was her reaction to this? “It felt a bit like a circus to me. It was a bit performative because they all wanted to be connected to the win,” she said.
Fiona, above right, was a professor of organisational behavioural psychology and her neighbour Lindsey Cole, left, works in IT at Wealden District Council.
They decided to start an online petition against the plans after they saw it was on the list of 28 proposed sites for redevelopment in the draft Local Plan. This identifies possible areas for building on, looking 15 years ahead.
They spent their own money on leaflets and a banner, preparing for a long fight.
“The response was amazing – it’s been incredibly rewarding”
Fiona mullen
Fiona and Lindsey were also aware of the political backdrop. Local elections for 152 district authorities – including Eastbourne Borough Council – will be held on May 4.
The council currently comprises 16 Lib Dems, eight Conservatives and three Independents. There is one vacancy.
Fiona said: “I think what you saw on the surface was not really what was going on. We were aware that local elections are coming up.
“We were prepared to keep going until Fisherman’s Green had some kind of protection – we didn’t expect anything to happen until later in the year.
“The Lib Dems kept telling us they could not take it off the list. We suspected they didn’t think they were going to get the backlash.
“What really triggered us to do something was that we felt disempowered and disenfranchised.”
Fiona and Lindsey, above at the town hall, said that elderly neighbours who do not have internet access did not feel they had a say in the draft plan.
However, the council has said that there were widely publicised displays in the town hall and in the Gather space in The Beacon Centre, in addition to online engagement with residents.
Lindsey said she would like to see the tennis courts used more and the basketball courts revamped: “They are very well used by lots of different people. There is a girl with Down’s Syndrome who plays regularly.”
In a public discussion on Facebook on January 31, borough council leader Coun David Tutt said he had support from the Lawn Tennis Association to refurbish the tennis courts.
“I am pleased to say that work will take place this spring and I will fight to ensure that this land remains as recreational and leisure space,” he wrote.
Fiona said: “It is the most diverse recreation space in Eastbourne. People make friends there, set up games, they come together.”
Of the overall experience of the brief but effective campaign, she said: “The response was amazing – it’s been incredibly rewarding.
“There is something very special about Fisherman’s Green. It has heritage and history which is deep rooted. The council seemed quite happy if people thought it was just a tatty car park.”
What changed?
The council in Eastbourne owns the land at Fisherman’s Green. It said it had no choice about putting the area on the proposed development list due to Government housing targets.
The Lib Dems who control the council also said they would have faced sanctions if they did not identify all undeveloped land. The housebuilding target for Eastbourne was 738 homes a year.
But Housing Secretary Michael Gove, responding in Parliament to a question from Eastbourne Conservative MP Caroline Ansell, said it was up to the council which sites they put in the draft plan.
Ms Ansell had asked in the Commons: “Fisherman’s Green has been identified by the local council as a potential housing development site in Eastbourne.
“Local people do not support that, and I support them. Can my right honourable friend [Mr Gove] confirm that the council, which owns the land and has put the site into the strategy, can take Fisherman’s Green out of the strategy without sanction?”
Mr Gove replied: “I have been taking a close interest in the activities of Eastbourne Borough Council. The decision to develop Fisherman’s Green is the council’s alone, so the council could easily take it out.
“The changes that we have made in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill would allow it to do that. I am afraid that there has been a campaign of dissimulation on the part of her local council; it is a case of Lib Dems spinning here.”
Although the council owns the land, it had also encouraged people to protest against any development and Coun Tutt said he had personally objected.
The council said the area had to be included because local authorities were required to leave ‘no stone unturned’ by the Government when considering sites. It did not necessarily mean all the sites would be developed.
What councillors said
Fiona appeared before a full council meeting at the town hall last month just after Mr Gove’s intervention. She told members: “The passion from the ground was enormous.”
Councillors from both sides of the political divide then appeared to claim victory and they thanked her.
Stephen Holt, deputy leader of the council, had moved a motion calling on the Government to “remove its use of unrealistic housing targets” and to “provide reassurances that it will not sanction Eastbourne Borough Council for removing the Fisherman’s Green site from the Local Plan proposal.”
He joked: “I am delighted the Government have been so quick to respond to my motion!”
Coun Holt (Lib Dem, Devonshire), below left, said: “There has never been any intention to sell this land. We asked residents to add weight to our own representations.
“I am truly thankful to them and what they have achieved. This is a victory for common sense and our residents.”
Conservative group leader Coun Robert Smart (Meads), above right, said: “We are pleased that the Lib Dems want to protect our green and leisure spaces.
“They have created an unnecessary scare story – Fisherman’s Green should never have been put forward.”
And Coun Jim Murray (Lib Dem, Hampden Park), chair of the planning committee, said if a Local Plan failed, the Government could take over planning and build whatever they wanted. They were trying to prevent that.
“When you [the campaigners] make your voice heard, it makes our job so much easier.”
And finally…
Both the Conservative MP and Lib Dem council leaders used almost identical language in praising residents.
Ms Ansell wrote in a press release: “I pay tribute to local residents who highlighted the threat to Fisherman’s Green.”
Coun Holt wrote in a press release: ” … we asked residents and members of the public for their views, and I believe that it is thanks to them that the Secretary of State has responded.”
Fiona said: “They have both invited me to work with them.”
She’s going to take her time to think about it.
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Firstly very proud of the Eastbourne people that signed the petition but was it really ever at risk of being built on?
Are Eastbourne council so stupid as to consider planning applications on land that could be under water before the cement is dry?
I’m glad it’s not happening. Just the rest of the flood plain to sort out now!
Eastbourne has enough housing, the services can’t cope, the sewers can’t cope and the town’s infrastructure can’t cope.