Demolition of St Leonards church and replacement with homes is refused

St Anne’s in Chambers Road was built in the late 1950s and finished in brick and flint in the Arts and Crafts style.

The church is in an elevated position to the road level, with grassed banks to the front and sides.

An application for five homes and the demolition of the church was refused by Hastings Borough Council’s planning committee on Wednesday (September 28).

The proposed dwellings were arranged in a semi-detached pair and a terrace of three units. A total of nine parking spaces are shown along with areas of soft and hard landscaping.

Officers recommended refusal due to issues with the design of the development, loss of a community facility and non-designated heritage asset and a failure to provide sufficient facilities so waste and recycling could be collected.

The committee heard the building is currently being used as a gym, but the applicant said this was a temporary use.

Mike Edwards (Con, Ashdown) was the only committee member to speak in favour of the plans. He suggested there were similar rows of houses across the borough and green sites were being built on elsewhere.

And although he acknowledge it was a ‘beautiful and good to look at church’ he wondered whether structural and subsidence issues made it practical or cost-effective to keep the building.

Officers said no issues with structural stability had been raised as part of the application process.

The rest of the committee backed the officers’ recommendation.

Matthew Beaver (Con, West St Leonards) said: “Churches are usually focal points for a community whether it’s de-consecrated or not. I feel uneasy about knocking churches down It just feels slightly wrong in terms of doing so.”

Ali Roark (Lab, Tressell) added: “I think the officers’ recommendation seems pretty sound in this report in terms of more investigation needing to take place as to the community asset side of this.”

Alan Roberts (Lab, Wishing Tree) had the final word. He said: “This is an asset to the community. Hopefully it can be opened up as an asset to the community and looked after properly.”