Eastbourne landlord’s anguish as car hits house for 4th time

Chris Ireland says it’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed outside her house on the corner of Tideswell Road.

Car collides with house in Eastbourne

She said, “The Beacon is getting busier and busier and it’s only going to get worse. I think it’s an accident waiting to happen and a tragic accident unless they do something about it.”

This comes after a car collided with the house on Saturday (January 12) – less than a year after a previous incident which saw a car ram through the car park barriers and smash the front wall.

Luckily no one was hurt and there was limited damage to the property at the weekend – unlike a decade ago. Mrs Ireland said, “I originally had the bollards put up after the first incident in 2009. A car went through the outside wall into the hallway of the house.

“The tenant was quite shaken, if it had been 30 seconds earlier he would have been stood in the hallway.”

She believes the incidents happen when automatic drivers put their foot on the accelerator instead of brake and ‘lunge forward’ from the car park.

“Someone will get seriously injured if another car comes hurtling out,” Mrs Ireland said, “I just want the council to make it safe for people and protect my house.

“The bollards now don’t stop anything. I just want something a little bit stronger to stop anything hurtling across that road.”

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said they understand Mrs Ireland’s frustration, “The concrete bollards currently in place were installed at this location many years ago and are not a solution we would consider appropriate today.”

But, they said, “We have to focus our very limited resources for road safety measures on the areas where the need is greatest, and this location, which has a good safety record, doesn’t meet the criteria at present.”