Agenda item

Report of Senior Head of Regeneration, Planning and Assets.

The committee considered the report of the Senior Head of Planning, Regeneration and Assets providing Members with background and context to the issue of Tourist Accommodation retention and to identify potential areas of change.

As one of the largest providers of tourist accommodation in the South East outside London, and having the 16th highest supply of hotel rooms in the country, it was important that a seaside resort like Eastbourne had the right quality and quantity of tourist accommodation because it was important to the local economy.  The current policy had been applied for development management purposes since the adoption of the local plan in 2003 and it was therefore considered that given the changing holiday and general economic market in the intervening years that a review of the effectiveness of this policy was undertaken.

The report detailed the tourist accommodation provision in Eastbourne, and a map of the Tourist Accommodation Area (TAA) was attached at appendix 1 of the report.

The existing policy on the retention of Tourist Accommodation came from the saved policies from the Eastbourne Borough Plan 2001-2011 (adopted 2003).  It was intended that the Assessment of Financial Viability of Tourist Accommodation SPG would be replaced by a new Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) that would provide an updated interpretation of Policy TO2 referred to at paragraph 4.3 of the report.

A Tourist Accommodation Study was completed by consultants Acorn Tourism Consulting Ltd in 2015.  The study considered that there was an oversupply of lower quality accommodation, particularly that which had previously catered for the coaching market. This oversupply meant that average occupancy levels fell as the lower quality accommodation reduced their prices to attract custom, which in turn meant other providers needed to reconsider their pricing. This ultimately drove down the average room rate and occupancy levels, particularly during the low season, and meant that owners were unable to continue to invest in the maintenance and upkeep of the property resulting in a downward spiral of poorer quality stock.  This had implications on how visitors perceived Eastbourne in terms of the quality of their visit and the likelihood of them returning or providing recommendations, and also on how investors perceived Eastbourne. This restricted the ability of the town to diversify the tourist accommodation offer to attract a broader range of visitors to Eastbourne thereby enhancing the destination’s overall competitiveness.  The report outlined the issues highlighted as part of the survey as follows:

·         An oversupply of poor quality accommodation in less prominent positions

·         The loss of substantial amounts of tourist accommodation could weaken  the town's ability to retain its status as a tourism destination

·         The protection of the character of the seafront

·         Policies needed to be well defined, economically realistic and able to be applied consistently

·         Removal of ‘hope’ value to encourage owners to run their businesses effectively

At this stage it was not possible for a new policy to be created, although the Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) could provide a new interpretation on what was required in order to meet the existing policy. The existing Tourist Accommodation Area (TAA) designated would need to be retained and evidence would still need to be submitted with a planning application for the loss of tourist accommodation in order to demonstrate non-viability.  However the SPD may set new criteria on what evidence was required in order to meet the expectations of the policy, or it may be more flexible with certain proposals in certain situations.  One of the key recommendations of the Tourist Accommodation Study was that the boundaries of the TAA be amended.

Once feedback had been received from Members and the Eastbourne Hospitality Association, the SPD would be drafted and presented to Planning Committee for comments on 30 August, before being presented to Cabinet for authority to publish for consultation. Consultation was anticipated to take place between 16 September 2016 and 28 October 2016.  Following consultation, the comments would be reviewed to allow a final version to be presented to Planning committee and Cabinet, before adoption at the Full Council meeting on 22 February 2017.

The committee agreed that they did not wish to see the TAA ‘shrunk’ any further and they did not want to endorse the creation of a secondary zone with a more relaxed policy.  When considering the development scheduled to take place across Eastbourne and including the increased conference offer, Members agreed that it was essential to keep bed spaces.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.