Hastings traders' 'anger and frustration' over town centre pavement works delay

East Sussex County Council had planned to carry out the essential work from this week, John Bownas, manager of Love Hastings said.

He said after pressure from many sides, the authority had agreed to carry out a major repair programme along Wellington Place and Pelham Place to fix hundreds of loose and broken paving slabs.

Assurances had been given that teams would be in the area from Monday (October 30) through to Friday, December 8, he added.

However, work has now been set back to January.

An email received by Love Hastings, the town centre Business Improvement District, stated that the council would be: “replacing approximately 700 broken or loose pavers and 50-60 broken or missing slabs on Wellington Place, with approximately 225 broken slabs to be replaced on Pelham Place. Additionally, 69 areas that have been taken up and filled with tarmac on Pelham Place will have the slabs reinstated.”

On the one.network website the Pelham Place works are still indicated as happening throughout November.

Mr Bownas said shoppers and businesses were becoming frustrated and angry with the situation.

He said: “I regularly get stopped in the street by people asking me when these paving slabs will get fixed. And I don’t think a week goes by when I don’t see people who have tripped and fallen in the town.

“The huge extent of works that have been found to be necessary is really indicative of how Hastings has been short-changed in terms of road maintenance for a long time. It’s good to see the work might finally be happening, but it shouldn’t have been allowed to get into this state in the first place.

“I’m also speaking to the highways customer service team almost daily about a particularly dangerous section with barriers around it. A crew attended some weeks ago but were only told to do half the job, and the rest seems to have been forgotten about – yet I understood this was meant to be an emergency repair. The last time I called I was told the job had been signed off as complete.

“What I hope is that when the crews finally do arrive the quality of work is better than we’ve seen on potholes in the area. I raised an FOI (Freedom of Information) concerning one hole on the seafront that has regularly reopened and found that it had been ‘fixed’ over 20 times in the space of just two years.

“I do wonder if it would be better for Hastings if we were given the money to look after our roads for ourselves.”

A spokesperson for East Sussex County Council said: “Following a site visit, additional sections of the footway in the town centre have been identified as requiring repair, and to avoid work being under way during the busy pre-Christmas period, the decision has been taken to postpone the works until the New Year.”