'Recycled ideas' in £50m package, says Hardy

Cllr Stephen Hardy, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Rother District Council, called the cross-party plan an aspirational proposal, not a Government approved and funded plan.

The package was extensively reported in last week s Observer.

Cllr Hardy said the proposal, on which working parties from East Sussex County Council, Rother District Council, Hastings Borough Council and the South East England Development Agency, joined to pool ideas, gave Rother council no chance to debate or comment on any of the details.

He said: It is not, nor cannot be, a holistic solution to the problems of decline in the Hastings Travel to Work Area, which includes Rother. Only an all-encompassing regeneration scheme, supported by all stakeholders, will ensure success.

He said the proposals were a collection of ideas, some of which are distinctly recycled or untested.

For instance, the university proposal was suggested earlier this year as being based in Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings or Rye. Given the current cash crisis in higher and further education, Cllr Hardy thought it most unlikely there would be any funds to create a new institution.