Colonnade idea is welcomed

After 45 minutes discussion on Monday Rother's overview and scrutiny committee beefed-up the officers' recommendations by urging the council's cabinet to press ahead with the scheme. The aim is to combine regeneration ambitions to enhance the seafront and to solve the highly-successful club's long-felt need for more space and better facilities in one ambitious project. Rother planning project manager Richard Shoobridge and sports development officer Adrian Gaylon explained how by excavating into the headland behind the Colonnade space could be made not only for the Rowing Club but for a restaurant and retail complex. The scheme would be funded by bids for Sports Lottery and Interreg cash with match-funding sought from commercial partners. Councillor after councillor welcomed the scheme. Rother chairman Cllr Wendy Miers asked why excavating behind the Colonnade was being recommended when in engineering terms this was the most expensive option. Mr Shoobridge said that the Colonnade - built in 1911 to commemorate the Coronation of King George V - was suffering water penetration. The only solution to this would be to cut a two-metre trench behind it and insert a waterproof membrane. The work - costing at least 180,000 - would need to be done whether the project went ahead or not but was included in the overall 1.556m estimate. Councillors were reminded that other clubhouse development sites had been considered and rejected because they would intrude on the beach scene. The nearest indoor tank offering rowers all-weather training is in London's Docklands. Both Rowing Club and Rother officers believe a tank at the Colonnade would make Bexhill a Mecca for rowers seeking training. Not only could training be offered throughout the winter but for novices and youngsters too inexperienced to undertake training at sea. A proposed boat ramp to the beach would provide wheelchair users with beach access in a move which was also welcomed by councillors. New toilets would be managed by operators of the new facilities. Town Mayor Cllr Eric Armstrong called for showers which could be used by bathers to be included. Cllr Peter Fairhurst said of the report: "I am very impressed by it. I think we have to go to the maximum." Cllr Keith Standring said: "Without any doubt whatever this is one of the most exciting projects that we will be handling." Not only was it an opportunity to make Bexhill a centre of excellence for sea sports but an opportunity to provide beach access for the disabled - so helping two elements in the community. Council finance working group chairman Cllr Martin Mooney said: "I am in favour." The working group had been looking at Rother assets and had decided that the Colonnade was an under-utilised facility. Rother seafront working group chairman Cllr Chris Starnes was delighted that colleagues appeared to be in favour. There was a wider issue. If brought to fruition, the scheme would send out a message to investors that Rother was serious about regeneration, he said. Ward member Cllr Deirdre Williams described it as an exciting opportunity to create something which would draw in rowers from the entire south coast and involve local schools. Cllr Joy Hughes said that in 40 years in Bexhill she had seen the under-used Colonnade become more and more "dismal." She added: "This has got wonderful potential." Cllr Eveline Armstrong said previous seafront regeneration schemes had not met with public approval. "I hope that when we do something now we will make sure we are taking the people with us." On behalf of Churches Together In Bexhill, Town Forum chairman Ken Hutchinson submitted a letter to committee chairman Cllr Carl Maynard urging members not to forget that for 28 years community hymn-singing had been offered on summer Sundays from the Pavilion terrace and latterly the Colonnade. The previously-confidential appendix to Monday's report will now be published on the Rother website. Graham Smith, who currently operates the popular Colonnade cafe under lease from Rother, was in the public gallery for Monday night's debate. He told the Observer afterwards that he was reserving judgment on the scheme until the implications for his business, which includes the Colonnade forecourt, were clear.