Grand Hotel medical centre plan dropped

Ironically, the news comes just as Rother planning committee has finally given approval to a drastically revised design having rejected earlier proposals as unsatisfactory.

The news also comes two weeks after the Observer revealed in a court report that a 17-year-old youth had been living rough in the burnt-out ruin of the Grand, destroyed in an arson attack in 2002.

The aim had been to re-house the Sea Road and Albert Road GP surgeries in a state-of-the art health centre with its own basement car parking. The scheme would have been part-funded by the development of flats above the health centre.

The scheme had been proposed by Bexhill and Rother Primary Care Trust, working with General Practice Investments Ltd.

In response to an Observer inquiry, a Trust spokesman has now confirmed: "Bexhill and Rother Primary Care Trust and the GPs have been working to find a way to develop a new GP surgery on the site of the former Grand Hotel in Bexhill.

"Despite many months of detailed work, it is now unlikely that the GPs will be able to accept the terms and conditions that would be required for the health centre element of the development to go ahead in the near future.

"This is very disappointing for everyone involved in the plans, including the developer who has invested considerable time and resources in it.

"Both the PCT and GPs hope that the site can be re-developed soon for the benefit of all local people."

Planning approval had been granted at the December 9 Rother planning meeting.

Members heard that a striking design for a modern health centre had evolved from talks after rejection of the earlier designs.

The building would have included primary health care facilities and a pharmacy on the ground floor and underground parking for 41 cars.

The three floors above - including an "attic" floor set back from the block's frontage to make it virtually invisible from below - would have provided 30 sheltered housing units.

Negotiations had been underway for months after General Practice Investments Ltd had submitted plans which councillors considered too bulky and out of place for Sea Road.

But the December 9 planning committee had before it a version refined by architects after much discussion with the council's officers and English Heritage.

Most of the committee's deliberation was veiled in secrecy after members voted to declare "confidential business".

Press and public were ordered to leave the chamber because councillors believed their discussion would include mention of a solicitor's report.