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Proposals to redevelop a landmark building in Eastbourne have been given the go ahead by town planners.

Eastbourne Borough Council’s planning committee unanimously backed proposals on Monday (October 17) to redevelop the former TJ Hughes building in Terminus Road, creating 65 apartments above 710sqm of shop space.

The developer behind the scheme had initially hoped to demolish the entire building as part of the proposals.

However, following backlash they worked with the council and local groups to rework the designs to retain the building’s original facade.

How the redeveloped TJ Hughes building would look

Planning committee chairman Cllr Jim Murrary said: “I’ve been looking at this building for an awful long time, as have planning officers and the Eastbourne Society. We have gone through a lot of changes and I just wanted to say that it is so good to have a developer that’s actually listened to us and taken our thoughts forward.“With the way Eastbourne town centre is going to be getting transformed over the coming years, being able to have a bit of an exemplar building here — of how we should be doing things and will be doing things going forward with the transformation from shops into flats in the town centre — is so good. It is going to be so beneficial going forward.”

While given the go ahead by committee members, planning permission has not yet been granted. This is because some elements of the proposals still need to be resolved via a legal agreement.

This includes confirmation of developers’ viability position, which they say means the scheme cannot provide any affordable housing, either on site or through a financial contribution.

Another element to be resolved is a East Sussex County Council Highways request to limit the ability of future residents to seek on-street parking permits. It is unclear at this stage whether this would be a possible condition to apply.

This is significant as the scheme will have no on-site parking for residents other than two disabled parking spaces. However, residents will have access to 80 cycle spaces, a car club scheme and a communal garden.

For further information see application reference 220633 on the Eastbourne Borough Council planning portal.

Decision made on Eastbourne TJ Hughes site redevelopment