Happy New Year from Hastings Town Deal
We thought we’d take this opportunity to share some of the achievements of the Town Deal programme and our wonderful projects, over the past year.
Photo right: The new gym in Priory MeadowPhoto left: The Observer Building - Digital Arts Hub11 out of 13 business cases approved
Hastings was one of only 101 towns in England that were invited to bid for Towns Fund money. A requirement of the funding bid was the establishment of a Town Deal Board. Hastings Town Deal Board was established in January 2020. Almost all the projects within the 10 year programme are now approved, bar the Hastings Castle project which is currently in the process of approval. The first of the projects were approved at the end of 2021 and throughout 2022 we’ve had a steady flow of approval by the government.
10 year programme
The Priory Street Car Park and Priory Meadow 1B projects are being re-considered due to wider regeneration discussions in the Town Centre. More details about this will follow, but it’s another exciting potential development which wouldn’t have been possible without the Town Deal Fund.
The business cases required for approval took a significant amount of work from each project team that put forward robust proposals, and we are incredibly thankful they took the time to complete them. And of course, we thank Mott MacDonald for their assistance in helping to complete the business cases, and STEER Group for their independent assurance.
The next steps are to progress with refining and developing the proposals along with further public engagement and consultation, so that the appropriate planning permissions can be obtained and projects progressed.
5 projects open for business
We’re very happy that 5 new projects below were able to get off the ground so quickly, especially in some key locations in Hastings. They are now open for residents, local businesses and visitors to enjoy, and show that the Town Deal is committed to its promise to rejuvenate the town.
-
The building of Churchfields Business Centre is complete, with some final details to be completed in the new year before handover. The centre has been built to incredibly high sustainability standards and will help assist local small and medium-sized businesses to grow.
Find out more about Churchfields Business Centre.
-
The Creative Digital Hub, now named OBX, at the Observer building has been open running successful events over the past few months. This includes a project that’s all about 3D modelling and is now working on a digital recreation of the Trinity Triangle area.
Visit Hastings Commons Website for more details.
-
OWENS Entertainment, on the lower floors of the Old Debenhams building, opened fully to a lot of success in November. The development and opening of OWENS created 100 FTE jobs for local people, as well as providing a space for people of all ages to have fun.
-
A co-working space found at the top of the old Debenhams building. Several local businesses and organisations have already moved in there and uptake has been great.
You can find more details about the space on Freedom Works website, if you’re looking for a new place to work from in the new year!
For more details visit Freedom Works Website
-
The old New Look building in Priory Meadow has been transformed into two separate businesses.
On the lower floor, there is now a DWP Job Centre office. This office is in a central location meaning it is accessible for residents that need it.
On the upper floor is The Gym Group, a low cost 24/7 gym. The gym has been incredibly popular, especially with local young people.
Visit the Gym Group Website for more details.
We hosted our first-ever in-person event!
Since the Towns Fund was officially launched in 2019, we’ve had very limited opportunities to go out into the community and introduce the programme to the people its going to be benefitting.
On the 15 October 2022 we hosted an Open Day, which allowed members of the Town Deal team, and our project leads and board members, to talk to local residents about the programme and showcase everything it has to offer.
We had some incredible feedback which was resoundingly positive about the programme, as well as some constructive criticism that the team are taking on and working with. Here’s just a snippet of the feedback we had:
“Such a positive development for the town.”
“Fantastic and inspiring, lifted my spirits and raised my hopes.”
“All [of the projects] are fabulous additions to the local community.”
Thank you to everyone that took the time to come down, and also thank you to Priory Meadow for hosting us!
And this is just the beginning…
These examples are just some of the wonderful things that have happened over the past year with some more exciting work upcoming over the next year and all the way up to 2026.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the programme in any way, from working on the projects, to sharing our content online and sending us questions. It’s greatly appreciated.
To continue to stay up to date with the Town Deal programme, and see other pieces of work that went ahead over the year, you can keep up to date on the Hastings Town Deal Blog: www.hastingstowndeal.com and on our social media.
