2025 Timeline
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Oct-Dec 2025
Our 6th AGM will be held on October 8th at Gildredge Park Bowls Clubhouse with speaker Graham Maunders giving a talk. The new Board will meet in November.
Jul-Sep 2025
A new Graduate in Property Development & Planning is joining the Board. Two new co-opted members will also join. A Members' Update for 2025 was mailed to all our members.
Apr-Jun 2025
All Stage 1 costing work is complete and invoices paid. Full planning permission achieved but scheme viability is under threat under shared ownership due to high interest rates and property prices dropping. A Trustee Recruitment pack was created and distributed.
Jan-Mar 2025
Two new volunteers agreed to take Minutes and help with Social Media posts. We began exploring whether working in partnership with a Housing Association might make our new build more viable if the properties were leased out for the long term.
2024 Timeline
November 2024
We held a vision building day with ten members and renergised our vision to press on with our new build and other projects we want to start. We also visited Hastings Commons to learn about their work as a CLT over the last 14 years.
October 2024
Our 5th Annual General Meeting was held at The Gildredge Park Bowls Clubhouse and was well attended. Speaker, Tom Chance highlighted the work of national CLT Network and its lobbying of governement for more community led housing.
August 2024
Our Chair attended a training workshop for social enterprise leaders and did some strategic planning work with the aim of hosting a vision building day with the board and members. We agreed to spend money on raising our profile through social media postings using Ditzy Media
April 2024
Jo, one of our Trustees, wrote to all members asking for funding support. We also had a stand at a local market to sell items that had been donated with limited success. We recruited a new volunteer Accountant to assist with financial modelling work.
March 2024
We agreed to ask OSM to cost the build based on a SIPs system, which uses timer frame insulated panels to achieve an EPC rating of C and above. We arranged for a Red Book Valuation and also began a Board skills audit.
January 2024
We agreed to meet the costs of Stage 1 Pre-Development which includes details costing of all mechanical and electrical engineering works for the new build. OSM agreed to work with MH Architects in Chichester.
2023 Timeline
October 2023
Our 4th Annual General Meeting was held at The Gildredge Park Bowls Clubhouse and was well attended. Speaker, Caroline Ansell MP said housing is the biggest issue concerning local people.
August 2023
We finally achieved planning consent for our new build of five houses at Biddenden Close, Langney, which will be offered under a Shared Ownership scheme once built and appointed OSM Construction as our new build partner.
April 2023
We signed a grant agreement with Eastbourne Borough Council for a community led housing Grant of £65k for the new build development. This has kick started our fundraising.
March 2023
We began a tender process to seek alternative quotes from five different firms for the new build. We considered Timber Framed, traditional Brick & Block, Structured Insulated Panels and Modular Housing Units.
February 2023
We applied for funding to recruit and appoint a Community Engagement Officer but was unsuccessful. We began to plan a brief to seek new quotations from a range of construction companies.
January 2023
We requested an updated quotation from Boutique Modern only to discover that house building costs had doubled since our first feasibility study had been completed.
2022 Timeline
Below are details of our journey towards house building...
December 2022
We hope construction will soon get underway at the Boutique Modern factory and our fundraising efforts will continue.
November 2022
We are working towards achieving planning consent with help from our construction partner, Boutique Modern. Grant funding research is also a priority this month.
October 2022
We will hold our AGM at 6.30pm on Monday October 24th 2022 at St Barnabas Church Centre (adjacent to Langney Shopping Centre). Speaker is Lucas Shone, our construction partner from Boutique Modern in Newhaven. It is a chance to meet Members and appoint Trustee Officers for the coming year.
September 2022
We are working with the Community Shares Company who are helping us develop our first Community Shares Offer, which is for social investors who will invest their savings with us and get 2.5% annual interest added to their share account. We hope to raise over £100k. Contact the office for details.
August 2022
Awaiting planning permission and technical costings for construction costs. Fundraising via Crowdfunder. We need funds to show grant funders we have community goodwill supporting us.
July 2022
Grant reporting; Land Valuation; Year End Accounts; FCA Reporting are all being worked on with our Accountant, John Caldine. We begin our road show of public meetings to share our plans with people iin Eastbourne. Site investigations begin.
June 2022
Chair of Trustees, Sandy Medway (left) with ECLT Member, Sue Relf, celebrating our land acquisition with Cllr Alan Shuttleworth (right) and Tom Warder (far left) from the Sussex Community Housing Hub. We submitted our Planning Application to Eastbourne Borough Council.
May 2022
We exchanged on the Land Contract and agreed completion will finalise once we have secured most of the capital funding we need to develop the site.
April 2022
Our solicitor, Zara Coton at Stephen Rimmer's, worked on our behalf to secure the land contract for the garage site at Biddenden Close.
March 2022
ECLT volunteers met with Architect, Ciaran Andrews at Boutique Modern to refine our concept and ideas.
February 2022
The Biddenden Close Project Management Team weekly meeting online develop new build plans with business partners, Boutique Modern and Lawson Queay.
January 2022
Welcome news of our successful application to the government's Community Housing Fund for pre-development costs.
2021 Timeline
Trustees worked on land acquisition and seeking funding opportunities and business partners...
2021 July
We are awaiting news of the guidance for the latest Homes England grant, which will be published in August 2021. This is funding for pre-development costs.
We received a draft land contract from EBC and are seeking legal advice whilst also updating our business plan and community shares prospectus to be launched in September.
2021 June
Eastbourne Herald publishes an article about the Housing Minister visiting Sussex and the Zed factory producing modular housing units to help those struggling to buy as house prices rise across Sussex.
2021 June
EBC & ECLT agree heads of terms and an exchange of land contract date is set for mid July 2021.
2021 March
Eastbourne Borough Council cabinet members approved the transfer of land off Biddenden Close in Langney Eastbourne to Eastbourne Community Land Trust.
The land already has planning permission and the disused domestic garages site has no tenants
2019/2020 Timeline
Follow our journey below...
2020
Zoom Meetings & AGM
During most of 2020 trustees met online via Zoom with other CLTs and the Sussex Housing Hub to further develop our plans around raising finance, construction methods and partners. ECLT held it's first AGM on Zoom in November 2020. With the help of Accountant, John Caladine, ECLT also submitted it's first set of accounts and Report to the FCA.
2020
Viability Assessments
Finding construction partners and getting quotes is a lengthy process and we are hampered in making progress by several lockdowns affecting our ability to travel and meet on site with potential contractors.
2020
Planning Application
The site had permission in 2018 to build five houses. We began working on a plan to build a mix of 3Bed and three 2Bed houses that will accommodate different size families in housing need.
2020
Land in Langney
Lockdowns began, due to the Covid-19. ECLT work stalled for several months, but in May 2020 the Council wrote with an offer of land in Langney and a grant to help kickstart our fundraising efforts.
2019
Search for land again
Sarah Roberts from Eastbourne Borough Council worked once again with us to find an alternative site, and another disused domestic garage site was identified, this time in Langney. The site already had planning permission and we were assured all tennancies had ceased and the garages were in fact empty.
2019
Meeting with Residents
With our plans unfolding and costings looking favourable, we wrote in August 2019 to local residents living around the garage site we hoped to develop. However, residents told us they needed their garages and didn't want to lose them. They didn't want a block of flats on the land, it was overdevelopment, and would lead to overcrowding and parking issues, especially with regard to access via their narrow roadway. We decided to walk away from developing the land. Some residents joined ECLT as Members because they had been heard.
2018/2019 Timeline
See below our journey since May 2018...
2019
Land in Hampden Park
During 2019 we had several meetings with Eastbourne Borough Council exploring the terms of our partnership and some outline terms were drafted.
2019
Meetings in H/Park
With land in sight, and a potential construction partner lined up, ECLT arranged a couple of public meetings with Hampden Park residents with Fr Adam Ransom's support at St Peter's Church hall. This was to introduce ourselves and the concept of community led housing. About 20 people attended and our hope was to find support within the community and to also discover if there were nearby people in housing need who might benefit from our plans.
2019
Modular Construction
ECLT were introduced to Newhaven based factory, Boutique Modern, a ten year old family firm run by father and son Dick and Lucas Shone who manufacture housing units. Volunteers visited the factory and were suitably impressed. We began learning more about this modular method of construction and continued working with Lucas to see if their cost effective methods were suitable for our project.
2019
Search for Land
During 2019, and with help from Sarah Roberts, Business Development Officer, at Eastbourne Borough Council, a plot of land in Hampden Park was identified for a possible new build development. The proposal was to demolish existing domestic garages and build eight 2Bed units. Work began on costing the project to check if it was viable for affordable housing.
2018 December
Formation
On 11 December 2018 ECLT received news that our Registration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was complete. Eastbourne Community Land Trust (ECLT) became formally a legal entity known as Community Benefit Society RS007293 on the FCA Mutuals Register. We were aided in this as a Start Up Affiliate with the National CLT Network who brokered our application. The Trustees appointed by members of the initial interest group, and subsequently formed steering group, were Sandy Medway; Christopher Snook; Howard Medway and Gordana Glamnovska.
2018 November
Launch
After months of education in CLT formation and related activities, with Graham Maunders from the Sussex Community Housing Hub, the steering group held a public launch at Eastbourne Town Hall on 26 November 2018. Attended by over 50 guests, which including several local councillors and the current MP, Caroline Ansell. Most attendees paid £1 and signed up as the first ECLT Members. Speakers included brief talks by several founding members who shared their passion for getting involved and volunteering to support a new movement for community-led affordable housing in Eastbourne.
