Pavilion revamp to start ... at last!

A deal has been signed with a Hove-based company.

Bexhillians can expect to see a site fence go up around the Grade One Listed building in two weeks.

Contractors Heasman Spicer, whose projects have included Brighton's Dome and the Barbican Theatre, have told the Pavilion Trust they can start work on site shortly after.

But this puts the start almost a year later than was originally hoped and the pavilion is not expected to be open again for public use until the summer of 2005 - its 70th anniversary year.

By that time the theatre will have been closed for more than two years.

Pavilion Charitable Trust director Alan Haydon announced the completion of the Lottery-assisted deal on Wednesday.

The trust has signed a 99-year lease on the Pavilion with the Rother District Council.

Legal contracts, final plans and specifications for the planned works were signed off.

A trust statement said: "The final negotiations leading to these several agreements demanded considerable attention to detail and caused the delays that have been the cause of the real frustration for both the town and the Trust.

"We can also now confirm that the contractor for the building programme will be Hove-based Heasman Spicer. The architects are John McAslan and Partners. Preparation for work on the Pavilion site will start within the next two weeks.

"This will not only protect the building from the risk of any further damage but prepare for the construction activity shortly afterwards.

"The anticipated time that the redevelopment, restoration and refurbishment will take to be completed is a little over one year, in readiness to re-open in early summer 2005."

The trust confirmed that the key elements of the De La Warr Pavilion redevelopment programme remain as:

1. The full restoration to the fabric of this Grade One listed building

2. The ground floor space, alongside the terrace, to be developed into a major gallery space that includes seminar /study room.

3. The foyer to be developed to include open-plan reception and information/booking desk and new bookshop selling a comprehensive range of quality books and other merchandise.

4. The new North Pavilion Studio for education, community and business use.

5. A new restaurant and caf with panoramic sea views

6. The restoration of original open-air sun terrace at east end with new staircase to roof that will once again be accessible

7. Full disabled access to all areas of the building

8. The new South Pavilion, providing much needed office space for Pavilion staff to run an efficient and successful organisation.

"The building project will have an overall cost of 7.7m, 6m of this having been raised from Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

"The Trust continues in its fund-raising campaign towards the final 1m. With building operations underway, we will now be inviting a broad spectrum of interested individuals to play a key role in securing the future of the Pavilion and we will be shortly announcing various ways in which they can help achieve this."

Referring to the delay in signing the deal, Mr Haydon told the Observer: "The devil has been in the detail, not only in sorting out the contract but also in enacting the lease.

"It was that final round of work that we had first undertaken a year ago. You are actually transferring a 99 year lease and all the authorities concerned, not just the trust and Rother but those other bodies putting money into the project, needed to ensure that their interests were secured."