Along the Eastbourne seafront, there are eight or more kiosks, let out by the borough council under a franchise to one company, selling the same package of ice cream and drinks. No chance of getting something different – a decaff or a freshly squeezed orange juice. This may be a cost-efficient way of contracting, but the council is now being drawn into developing new disney-type attractions by planning to transfer many publicly owned assets to the private sector.
As well as the seafront, the council owns golf courses, parks, a local wetland park and the parts of the South Downs above Eastbourne. The downland was bought by the council in the late 1920s to provide a public amenity for the town. But times and the town’s economic fortunes have changed.
The disneyfication of Eastbourne – simplistic and superficial
When in 2021 the council bid for £20mn in levelling up monies, the bid included £12mn to transfer the ownership of Black Robin Farm from the council to Towner art gallery. The farm, high on the downs, is to become a cultural, arts and education centre. More recently, the council asked the Eden Project to review all the council’s assets with a view to creating ecological attractions. The project brochure, which can only be obtained through a freedom of information request, states that in Project Eastbourne, the intention is “to pollinate” Eastbourne with:
‘Horizons’ and ‘Flows’, looking at interlocking ideas of movement through space and time, going from deep history through to … the future of Planet Earth …. a network of ‘Uprisings’ … each within its own unique ecological setting, enabling Horizons and Flows to be interpreted at both a local and global scale. Project Eastbourne, September 2022, p9.
Despite the pretentious language, the proposals create places which are superficial and simplistic – a giant floating raft spider on the Eastbourne Levels, Black Robin Farm on the downs to grow “ancient grains” as well as hosting a windmill and a brewery. The sea front will feature an upturned hull of a boat to form a Boat-anical Garden with an eco-amusement arcade and a crocheted kelp forest. In short, the Eden Project plans to ‘Disneyfy’ Eastbourne, stripping locations of their character, replacing them with so-called environmental projects but in a sanitised, tourist-friendly form which removes anything negative or challenging.
Local democracy compromised
Experience with private sector investment in the last 30 years suggests that such private companies strike a hard bargain and will not take risks when they take on previously publicly owned facilities. Commentators note that the transfer of public assets to commercial business corrodes local democratic politics. The chosen private provider identifies the facility that can realise the best returns at least risk, ignoring criteria which might more aptly reflect local needs and wishes.
The council then needs to persuade the public that this is the best option, often against the demands of residents. Any public participation has to be managed or ‘choreographed’, as the council needs to ensure that the companies’ chosen option is the only outcome possible.
Local councillors begin to see governing as creating a good relationship with private companies to deliver new facilities, whilst the traditional political skills of managing the demands of different local interest groups waste away. Residents become disengaged from local politics and the legitimacy of the local authority can only be further compromised. So it is with Eastbourne and the current proposals which are not easily accessible to the residents.
Fix the basics first
Comments on Eastbournians Facebook page suggest that, rather than these developments, residents would prefer to have the basics fixed: the streets cleaned, potholes filled and toilets open. Others wanted the 1930s bandstand and swimming pool of the same era refurbished. When parents complained about the closure of a local splash pad, the leader of council responded that the council needed to take some tough choices.
The splash pad cost £25,000 and was not a priority. It is difficult for local people to understand how the council can spend £12mn on transforming Black Robin Farm into an arts centre remote from town and not find a relatively small amount of money for a splash pad which has now been saved by a local company.
Judging by yet another comment on the local Facebook page, the alienation from local decision-making that residents feel is causing anger and a sense that things no longer work in the way that might be expected in a democracy.
“We want to be consulted on future developments. None of the parties put these future plans in their manifestos at last year’s local election. …we need a say in the direction this council is taking Eastbourne.“
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