March 2010

Firstly an apology. It has been over two months since my last post here and the project is progressing at a fantastic rate. Hardly a week goes by without some sort of landmark that requires the whole team's time and attention.

On return from the Christmas break the team gathered to discuss the shelters and kiosk scheme. The exhibition of the designs at the De La Warr Pavilion over the Christmas and New Year break allowed us to get a feel for the public feedback on functionality and design of the shelters. Our architects on this element of the scheme attended a day of design workshops to progress the design stage in preparation for the February steering group. The team at has worked closely with and listened to, not only officers at Rother, but HTA (our lead architects and consultants) and local residents to ensure the final designs are sympathetic to the new scheme and to the setting in which they will be placed. I'm looking forward to presenting the final design on this website in the near future.

On February 18^th the planning committee granted conditional planning approval for the plans to refurbish and restore the Colonnade to offer a new commercial space for restaurants/cafés, a set of kiosk offerings and provide a brand new Rowing Club, richly deserved by a club that have done a great deal in the last year to put Bexhill on the map. We will be looking to contract these works out during the next few months, which will also include the terracing and redesign of the Metropole Lawn. The OJEU notice, which covers the EU requirement to advertise contract notices ensuring the free movement of goods and services within the EU was published recently and you can read more about this in our news pages. The Colonnade and Rowing Club specification works will continue apace over the next few weeks to design the interior layouts of the new spaces.

The landscape works (known as Contract A) are currently being tendered and we will awarding a contract to the successful tenderer very soon. It's a very tight timescale with the works due to start in April, the successful contractor will be posted here in due course. We will shortly be updating the programme page with an up to date schedule of works and landmarks on the project. This should allow everyone to get a feel for how the project is progressing.

This brings me neatly on how the access along the promenade and surrounding areas will be affected over the coming months. We are in the process of contacting groups and organisations who would occasionally use the seafront throughout the year. If you are one of these groups and have not yet received a letter please get in touch with us. As I said the works are due to start in April and the first major task will be to resurface the west promenade. This means that the stretch of prom from the Religious Garden running west to the toilets near Richmond Road may be subject to access restrictions. This understandably may cause some inconvenience but I'm sure that the end result will be more than worth it. The landscape works will then proceed to the garden "rooms" and the promenade will be affected in smaller sections to allow this work to take place we will publish full details of how access will be affected as soon as our contractor has finalised the works programme.

Keep an eye on our latest news, landmark dates and blog pages on this site over the coming months, the project is now moving on to its "physical" stage and we will all be able to see the seafront transform on an almost daily basis.