Arches demolition bill will be more than half a million as completion delayed until next year
Work to demolish Battle Road arches is set to drag on well in to next year as the total bill to local tax payers escalates by more than 60 per cent to more than half a million pounds
A statement issued by Hastings Borough Council (HBC) on Friday afternoon said the project had been delayed due to ‘several factors’.
The council says it ‘shares residents concerns’ about the delays: “We are sorry about the impact that this may be having. We know this has caused concern and inconvenience.”
Delays include the discovery of historical encroachment of the rear garden boundaries of properties along Silverlands Road onto the roof terrace.
The council’s statement said: “The work and additional costs are being discussed by the Council’s Cabinet on Monday October 4th, before a full council discussion on Wednesday October 13th. If the additional work and budget is approved, the demolition contractor will be working to secure these gardens before demolition can begin.”
The council’s latest estimate is that works will not be complete until at least Spring next year, with the Battle Road northbound closure remaining in place until then.
I was in May last year that HBC went to court in an attempt to force the owners of the arches to either repair them, making them safe, or to demolish them. When the owners – listed in the land registry as Elsie Goldsmith, Vaughan Wheatley and Simon Leeves all with addresses in St Leonards – failed to respond to the court’s ruling HBC stepped in.
Work began in May and was expected to take 12 weeks
Earlier this year the council said it expected to spend £325,000 and promised to take “robust action” against the owners to claw back what the council was having to spend.
The full Cabinet report can be found online https://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=130&MId=4438.
Is this a joke? They only just realised there’s gardens above??? This work is making life a misery for the surrounding area and it’s going to drag on for another 6 months?
If the council had acted correctly in issuing an Enforcement Order this ridiculous cost and fiasco would never happened.
This site had been in a state of neglect and decay for well over a decade.
But clearly where it is on the map, they never bothered to act on it.
Another class example of dreadful management by HBC and now costs to be absorb with tax payers money