Seafront hotel: We don't want it!

By May 20 a remarkable 370 of you had taken time to fill out our questionnaire. A clear ten to one majority say it's the WRONG site, the WRONG design and the overall idea is FLAWED.

The Observer office was inundated with suggestion forms saying the issues like the shoddy railway station, cracked pavements, the closed De La Warr Pavilion, transport and tatty buildings should be the focus of town regeneration rather than the hotel.

Opposition to the scheme is mounting and hundreds are expected at a Save Our Seafront public meeting called for next week. Protesters are horrified at the prospect of losing the Metropole putting green to a building that would inevitably shadow the iconic De La Warr.

And the public outcry has not gone unnoticed by regeneration firm Sea Space, which commissioned a design competition for the 60-bed hotel complex, won by ABK architects' futuristic offering.

A spokesman said this week: "We are taking note of public reaction. The scheme is not dead by any means and we still think that site is a good one for future development that will benefit the whole town. But at this stage whether the scheme is reduced in size or whether to build on that site is being debated by us and ABK.

"We are looking at alternative sites and that has always been the case. We would not want to propose a scheme which was likely to fail the planning process."

Rother leader Graham Gubby has cast doubt on the practicalities of the scheme but says the design competition has been worthwhile in stimulating debate about the town's future and putting Bexhill in the national spotlight.

He said: "The proposal has not come from the council but from Sea Space and I advised them right from the start that this proposal would be dynamite as far as public reaction was concerned. I imagine it would struggle to get through the planning process.

"However, choosing the putting green gave us the chance to attract the best architects in the world to compete against each other in drawing up plans for the entire town centre. They wouldn't have done so had it been the Grand Hotel site.

"Doing nothing is not an option and I'm glad this process has involved the community in debating the future of our town.

"We've had tremendous national press coverage and we are starting to see investment in the town with regards the station, our new health centre and several major property developers showing interest in certain sites."