The news that we are about to see the birth of the business quarter in Pevensey Bay has sent ripples of interest around key business players in the locality, as well as forward thinking residents.
The scheme, the second such plan for business and new services in Pevensey Bay, is injecting a sense of hope and anticipation into something of a tired local scene for business growth and development.
The first scheme, is for 12 new beach huts for Pevensey Bay, a feasibility study by Steve Wagner, a property surveyor working for housing and Property Services for Wealden District Council.
The scheme was presented to Pevensey Parish Council in July.
We publish the full report and look at the work undertaken in nearby Littlehampton and some other key locations by a series of specialist companies, work that could be coming to Pevensey Bay.
The full report will appear in our newspaper, the Journal, published next week.
The birth of the business quarter takes places down the road. A set of garages are planned, we understand, to become a set of business start up units , with approval being sought from Wealden Council soon.
The injection of hope with such a forward thinking scheme is likely to be looked on in a favourable light by Wealden Council in our opinion, because the desperate need for business start up units here is well known.
In July a couple in Pevensey Bay, running the successful AD Signs company, began a campaign to ‘bring their business home’.
The company, responsible for some of the best signage in the Bay for shopfronts and venues began a campaign to highlight the lack of resources and input into the business infrastructure in the Bay.
Ashley Dawson, on behalf of the couple, put it to Bay Life, “somewhat ironic that we have a successful signage company and we can not find in Pevensey Bay a suitable start up unit we desperately need, because there appears to be no interest with regard to the local infrastructure of the business community here,”
“Millions being spent down the road on business, this side of Sovereign Harbour, Not a word about supporting the business infrastructure that is so obviously and desperately needed, you could not make it up really could you?
“Not a single penny being spent to support the business infrastructure here, so we have ended up commuting to Bexhill to work in a serviced unit, so what exactly is all that about then?”
Hayley, his wife and business partner, who deals with customer communications for the company told Bay Life, “took over one hour to get to work this morning in Bexhill, it will be bad now for the six weeks whilst children are on school holidays. We need our service base in Pevensey Bay desperately”.
The possibility that we are about to see the establishment of a small business quarter in Pevensey Bay, together with 12 state of the art beach huts is interesting.
It is what we need as residents, it is what we need as businesses here and it is what we need to attract more visitors here which is fundamentally important to the survival of our community.
It can be argued that the question is not just about our survival, but about the enhancement of this little corner of Sussex, the place they call the hidden jewels in the crown of Sussex. We want these jewels to shine.
We need business life and the development of an infrastructure that can support that business life.
We need as a community to become more ourselves and we need Pevensey Bay to be that bright spark again after ten years of economic austerity,
We are beginning to live in a different age. The Localism Act is changing the way that small communities work. The Coastal Communities Fund is an injection of hope, not just hope, but practical sustainable business ideas, from the ground up, coming from local people.
Look East along the coast and we have the revitalised Hastings Pier. owned by local people. Look West along the coast and we have the revitalised Saltdean Lido, also owned by local people. There is no coincidence that these things are happening now, they are a result of the new times in which we are now living..
Nowhere can all these changes be more apparent than in the small coastal communities dotted around the country.
Of course 12 beach huts and 4 garages converted to become business start up units in Peveney Bay do not compare, except of course that is exactly what they do.
We have an economic microcosm here and these plans, zoomed up, seen in sharp relief, are a tiny part of the same picture.
With the beach huts and with the birth of the business quarter in Pevensey Bay, we are seeing the potential for new life, seedcorn investment and potential for local growth in the economy.
Four garages converted could hardly become a business start up quarter in Pevensey Bay could they, unless of course we call them by that name.
So we just did. Welcome to the business quarter of Pevensey Bay.
All communities know that business in small communities works with regeneration with cluster effects. New businesses become markers. What they mark is the birth of things, sat together they begin to grow a little in significance and become a cluster.
Four small garages converted to become business start up units might see four more garages proposed as business start up units.
In that creative mix is a partnership with the community of small service based companies.
What kind of companies might we be about to see take up the offers to lease the units?
A new business perhaps to service and rent the beach huts, a small digital start up maybe, a room locator for visitors, something like a small Pevensey Bay promotions company bottling the essence of the location with class products from clothing to tea towels and maybe a home fit for heroes for a signage company desperately looking to move back to the Bay.
We could be seeing a future for Pevensey Bay that we have not seen in a generation.
This is how Pevensey Bay started. The location has always been a visitor destination and if we can take up our role on the new stage of small coastal communities in the country, it would appear that all we have to do is to become more ourselves.
With our message written right through the quirky stick of rock that is Pevensey Bay, the new endeavours could benefit us all.
Life here for all of us, and for all our visitors, could be enhanced.
Simon Montgomery
editor, Bay Life
IMAGE CREDIT: Jan Barron
