Eastbourne housing developments for former care home sites officially refused

Developers wanted to knock down the former Summerdown and Pentlow nursing homes in Summerdown Road and build 24 new flats and houses in their place.

The two applications were deferred by Eastbourne Borough Council’s planning committee in September last year.

This was because the applicant had proposed a number of last minute changes in the hope of overcoming the officers’ recommendation of refusal.

Since then the developer has submitted a pair of fresh applications for a total of ten homes, down from 24.

The original applications came back to the committee last Tuesday (March 22) and were officially refused with little debate.

A neighbour of the site, speaking in objection, said the original scheme was ‘unsuitable’ and described how they expected any proposals to maintain the character and ambience of the area.

Peter Diplock (LDem, Old Town) said they had discussed the plans in detail last year, adding: “This is really overdevelopment of the sites and it’s fairly obvious for people to see.”

Both applications were refused unanimously.

A previous application for a 64-bed facility was also refused back in 2019.

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