At last week’s Full Council meeting, Meads councillor Robert Smart, Leader of the Conservative Opposition, revealed that independent structural engineers have confirmed Eastbourne’s Bandstand terraces can safely accommodate audiences with existing propping in place, directly undermining earlier claims from Eastbourne’s Liberal Democrat run council that demolishing the rear third of the structure was the only realistic way to keep future seasons running.
Fresh dynamic load testing was carried out in December 2025 after statutory heritage consultees and local campaigners raised strong objections to Eastbourne Council’s plans to demolish the upper balcony, the middle balcony and the seafront shelters, badged in council paperwork as “improvement and safety measures”. Heritage experts had already warned that the scheme set a “dangerous precedent for demolition over repair” and that alternatives had not been explored in detail or given the “great weight” national policy requires for a Grade II listed asset.
Conservation specialists appointed by the council now report that the tested terraces are “performing robustly with good stiffness characteristics and consistency of results across the structures” and that there is an assured margin of safety for audiences, provided existing propping is retained. The latest structural appraisal confirms that all core elements tested behaved favourably under crowd loading and recommends a sequenced programme of remedial works and restoration over several years, alongside continued propping.
Councillor Smart said:
“Residents were repeatedly told by our council that large-scale demolition was the only pragmatic way to reopen the Bandstand and protect public safety. The council’s own engineers have now confirmed that the structures tested are performing robustly and remain capable of supporting audiences with the current propping in place. Demolishing a third of the Bandstand was never a precondition for a 2026 season.
“That is welcome news for everyone who loves this building, but it also proves that last year’s rush to irreversible demolition by the Liberal Democrat Administration was desperate, ill thought out and, on the evidence we now have, unnecessary. It took a statutory objection from the Twentieth Century Society, belated engagement with Historic England and sustained pressure from opposition councillors and local groups before the Administration stepped back and commissioned the testing that should always have come first.
“We have long maintained our policy that a Conservative council would commit to fully restoring the Bandstand. We call on Eastbourne’s Liberal Democrats to publish the detailed long term plan for the Bandstand’s future that has been so conspicuously absent. Eastbourne needs a Bandstand that is open, safe and a clear guarantee that we will pass it on intact to the next generation. Residents are entitled to the full story, not just the convenient parts, when it comes to the future of Eastbourne’s most iconic asset.”
