New coffee shop for Hampden Park approved

At a meeting on Tuesday (January 26), Eastbourne Borough Council planning committee approved an application to build a drive-in style building – expected to become a branch of Costa Coffee – at the Hampden Park Retail Park, off of Lottbridge Drove. 

The application had been submitted by Eastbourne Borough Council, which is also the site’s landowner.

While the application was approved, concerns were raised around the environmental impacts of a drive-in facility in this part of town, due to the idling of engines.

Cllr Robin Maxted (Lib Dem, Upperton) said: “Drive-throughs are notoriously polluting. There actually hasn’t been that many studies done on it, but there was one done last year carried out by Coventry University.

“One sample at a Costa Coffee in Taunton showed NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) levels reaching 16 times the legal limit on an average day across the year. This was due to idling of cars queuing up to get their coffees. 

“This could cause not only the staff a problem  but also the car drivers themselves. I think there is a serious health implication here and also it is not really along the lines of Eastbourne Borough Council’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2030.”

He added: “I was wondering, as this is an Eastbourne Borough Council development, what pressures we could put for them to mitigate this additional pollution?”

Despite these concerns around the environmental impact of the scheme, others felt it could be mitigated.

Committee chairman (and Hampden Park ward councillor) Jim Murray said: “With it being on a piece of land we own, we can put extra signage up and that is something I will be pushing for if we perceive that we’ve got a problem down there.”

Cllr Murray went on to say the wider redevelopment of the site was intended to address the carbon neutrality goals. He also said Costa Coffee “prided themselves” on building carbon neutral buildings. 

He said: “We’ve got two electric charge points going up in that new car park as well and the facilities to put in another 21 if needed.

“What we are hoping is that the taxi drivers are going to go up there, get their cup of coffee, sit in the car park and charge their cars up.

“With our drive for carbon neutrality by 2030, we are hoping there are going to be a lot more electric cars in Eastbourne by the year 2030, which should reduce the amount of idling traffic we have actually got in the car park.

“It is a tricky one at the moment, but looking to the future we can’t see a major problem with this.”

Plans to build a similar building on a different part of the site had been part of a previous planning application approved in 2019. That previous application also included proposals for two other new retail units nearby, but these were both omitted from the new scheme.

The committee was told the remaining units could still be built in future as planning permission had been granted.

As well as the different location for the drive-through, the new application included additional tree planting and landscaping, as well as improvements to the wider car park area. The building was moved due to concerns around drainage at its previous location, the committee heard.

Cllr Paul Metcalfe (Con, Sovereign Harbour) said: “I think it is a very, very good proposal and I note that this is the start of the council’s transformation of the site.

“I think this will add a lot to this particular site and I am very pleased to see the trees added – it is great seeing trees added rather than taken away – and I would totally support this application.” 

Following further discussion the application was approved unanimously. 

For further application reference 200909 on the Eastbourne Borough Council planning website.