STATEMENT 22 OCTOBER
This article, first published on 21 October, has been updated to make clear that we will give owners of the old newsagents in Pevensey Bay the opportunity to give comment to the circumstances surrounding this prospective tenancy, which we will publish in full. We accept that the focus of the article should have been on the prospective tenancy, and that any opinion about the need for new shops here should not have formed part of this article.
Prospective tenants to what was to have been an art shop at the old newsagents in the parade in Pevensey Bay pulled out today with claims that the owners have ‘failed to play their part’.
The prospective tenants are currently based in Bexhill. They run the popular, ‘In Perspective’ art shop, which supplies arts material together with a small gallery.
A spokesman for ‘In Perspective’ told Bay Life today (21 October), “we have had enough with the waiting and we have now taken up a verbal contract with premises based next to Polegate railway station”.
Bay Life understands that ‘In Perspective’ has had to wait five months for the old newsagents to be readied for their tenancy. In particular they had been waiting to hear that the taped up windows at the front of the property had been replaced.
We understand the question of when the windows would be replaced, went on for a number of months.
Their spokesman this morning (21 October) told Bay Life, “they did not even tell us that the windows have now been replaced, we just got a text message”.
A source within the arts community, told Bay Life on hearing the news, “I know that the people who own the newsagents, also own the 1066 store and the Bay Side Diner, and that without them we would not have the post office, but this is not just about their own shops, they have responsibilities as part of the wider business community”.
There is clear respect in this community for the family that owns both the 1066 store and Bay Side Diner. Without the family, it is accurate to suggest that we may not have had a post office.
Their commitment and support for business here is demonstrable. There are many examples of their commitment in both the business and social context here, over many years.
What has happened with the prospective tenancy is not clear. The owners of the old newsagents in Pevensey Bay are to be invited to give comment to the circumstances surrounding this prospective tenancy, which we will publish in full.
