A controversial plan by the Home Office to convert the former Esperance Hospital into a 125-bed asylum seeker accommodation centre has been scrapped, following widespread opposition from the local community, with nearly 5000 residents signing a petition against the proposal.
The Home Office had been expected to green light the sight at the end of last month, after agreeing a five-year lease, with refurbishment works almost complete to prepare the building for occupation.
Opposition Leader, Cllr Robert Smart, welcomed the decision, describing the proposal as “reckless” and deeply damaging to Eastbourne’s future.
Cllr Smart said:
“The Home Office has finally seen sense and abandoned its reckless plan to convert the former Esperance Hospital into a 125-bed asylum seeker accommodation centre. This proposal showed an appalling disregard for the future of Eastbourne.
It was always clear that Esperance House was entirely unsuitable. It sits in a neighbourhood largely made up of elderly and vulnerable residents, right next to the heart of Eastbourne’s tourism and hospitality sector.
Sussex Police raised serious concerns, and many of us warned about the damaging impact this would have on local businesses already under enormous pressure from rising costs and government tax increases.
For the government to seek to take this site away from desperately needed housing for local families would have been an unforgivable mistake.
While this decision is welcome, it should never have been considered in the first place. I will continue to hold the Council and government to account to ensure that sites like Esperance are used for the right purposes.”
