Councillors Approve Hastings Youth Club Refurbishment

Plans to remodel a Hastings youth club have gained the go ahead from county councillors.

On Wednesday (December 11), East Sussex County Council’s planning committee unanimously approved proposals to refurbish and reconfigure Hollington Youth Hub in Wishing Tree Road North.

The scheme is intended to boost the capacity of the building and improve its appearance and accessibility.

Before making their decision, the committee heard from Colin Edgely, the county council officer in charge of the Levelling Up Fund bid behind the scheme.

He said:

“The existing Hollington Youth Hub has been well-used over the years and carries a lot of history with the local community.

"It is now a run-down facility based around two main rooms — a sports hall and a youth club room. Its layout is problematic and facilities only allow a small number of users.

“The proposed new Hollington Youth Hub will be a fully-modernised building that provides opportunities for children, young people, parents and carers to access a wide range of positive activities and support services.

“The building will provide drop-in youth work activities after school in the evenings and at the weekends.

"During the day time, there will be provision for other clients — small children and their parents — provided by the Early Help Family Hubs team. At present there is no family hubs provision in Hollington.”

The committee also heard how the current youth centre facility is only able to support up to around 35 people, which means the centre is only able to work with approximately 80 young people every week.

The refurbishment would boost this capacity so around 75 people could be on the site at any one time, meaning staff could work with approximately 160 young people per week.

The works will involve the demolition of several existing extensions, which would be replaced with new extensions to the building’s side and rear.

These new extensions will include a new covered entrance space, which would take the form of a timber and glass structure.

The refurbishment would also involve the creation of a new cafe and seating area, but planning officers said this additional feature would require the youth hub’s sports hall to be reduced in size by 3.9 metres.

The reduction in the sports hall’s size had seen objections raised by Hastings borough councillors Paul Barnett and John Cannan, who said the loss of any sports facilities would be “unacceptable”.

In a statement submitted in response to the scheme, Cllr Barnett said:

“HBC officers have informed me that the size of the sports hall will be reduced by 25 per cent.

"This will prevent the following sports from taking place in the new building: badminton; basketball; fusbal; judo; five-a-side football; bowls; [and] volleyball.

“This is unacceptable in the most deprived community in Hastings, a community who love sport and who have asked that sports be a key element of this new facility.

"There are few other sports facilities nearby, and those there are, are at risk, including the adjacent community centre where protracted negotiations with ESCC have not provided a signed lease or any security for the community who manage it.”

For their part, county council officers had said the existing hall is already too small to cater for any formal sports other than judo and table tennis.

They said the proposed sports hall will continue to meet Sport England’s minimum dimensions for both of those sports, so would not result in the loss of any formal provision.

The borough councillors had also criticised the council’s consultation process, saying the reduction in the sports hall’s size had not been properly explained.

In his statement, Cllr Cannan said the consultation process had “failed to adequately attempt to take the views of residents in the surrounding areas into account.”

This view was disputed by Phil Scott, the area’s county councillor, who said he was “unaware of any negative comments” raised during any of the consultation events. Cllr Scott also spoke in favour of the scheme.

He said:

“This is a real opportunity I think for families and young people in Hollington to be able to look at a resource for the future, which will serve them well.”

The borough councillors’ comments also saw some criticism from the committee.

Proposing approval, Cllr Eleanor Kirby-Green (Con) said:

“I do think it is disappointing that we’ve got two … borough councillors both stating that [there will be a] loss of sports facilities due to the reduction in size of the sports hall; but … that is just not true. It is just unfortunate that is their view when clearly that isn’t true.

“Cllr Scott, you just said you think the consultation has been really good, but we’ve got another borough councillor here who says ‘insufficient consultation has been carried out’.

"I just think it is interesting that you start reading this and think ‘gosh’ and then you realise neither of those things are factually correct.

“I completely support this … because I think it is a superb opportunity and will be good for the people of Hollington.”

For further information on the proposals see application reference HS/3510/CC on the East Sussex County Council planning website.