The Wealden Council inspired project ‘Streets Ahead’ which was launched in October 2013 to ‘help high streets successfully meet the challenges of the 21st century’ has seen meetings set up in localities across the region.
Officer resources have been deployed to villages to talk about ways in which local businesses, organisations and individuals can help create initiatives to draw more attention to the unique attractions and independence of the retail and service sectors in each area.
Hailsham, for example, has introduced a new street market and is working on an online town and shopping guide.
A successful first meeting in Pevensey Bay at the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant (March 31) has led to two further meetings locally at which businesses, organisations and key stakeholders have put points of view and shared opinions and ideas.
The cluster of villages that comprise Pevensey, Westham and Pevensey Bay has taken up the gauntlet. They are making plans to see what can be achieved in the locality.
Critics have argued that without evidence of new resources behind the plans that any decisions made will lack viability. Nonetheless the nature of local economic climates, growing interest in vehicles such as village markets to kickstart the footfall into parish halls, for example, has proved at the grassroots, that with goodwill, determination and impetus behind the schemes, that demonstrable results can be achieved.
In the three villages that comprise a close knit community of interest, the new forum that has emerged, ‘the Pevensey Villages Partnership’, has sparked a degree of excitement about possible ideas and their implementation..
Wealden District Councillor Lin Clark told the Eastbourne Herald (May 7);
“The ‘Pevensey Villages Partnership’ is a community project run by the communities of Pevensey, Pevensey Bay and Westham and works on creating a sustainable future for those areas. The group holds monthly meetings that are well-attended by traders, organisations and residents”.
“At the meetings, they discuss such things as upcoming events, setting up a new and comprehensive website and creating a new Heritage Trail guide taking in Pevensey Castle”.
Nigel McKeeman, who chairs the Wealden District Council’s Scrutiny Committee Streets Ahead working party was the original moving force behind the initiatives that seem to be resonating across the region.
His words, in the founding document behind the schemes, appear to have caught the local popular imagination.
“Only 40% of retail spending is expected to take place in our high streets next year. If the situation on the high street is not going to get worse, it will need to reinvigorate and reinvent itself. These changes give towns and villages an opportunity to rethink and reconstruct the role of their high street”.
“Every town and village will have different issues, requiring different solutions, but many of the underlying concerns and challenges will be shared. They will have to take the lead.
“Through the Streets Ahead project, Wealden can provide a forum for sharing solutions and bringing in new ideas from further afield”.
“We can also use our resources in both planning and regeneration to help make the solutions happen”.
Nigel McKeeman, Wealden District Council Scrutiny Committee, Streets Ahead working party, 11 October 2013
Anyone interested in joining the new local group can make contact by phone for further information.
Pevensey Villages Partnership
Lin 01323 768530
Shirley 01323 461692
