Decision details

Additional events outside of the existing brief were included during and after public consultation following a request from the Town Deal Board to ensure key stakeholder groups had been engaged at a more detailed level than at the public events. This required alterations to the consultancy support contract including an increase in scope, length and value.

This added benefit to the scheme as we could understand and discuss issues, concerns and potential mitigations with key groups who had not attended the public events. The additional post-consultation events have helped us to achieve our objective of co-designing the scheme and have been necessary for seeking feedback on potential changes to the design following the consultation report data.

There is a business need for these new activities to ensure a
comprehensive project consultation.

Decision on whether to approve the increase in scope, length and value of the Hastings Town Centre Public Realm and Green Connections Consultancy Support.

This extension will be funded by the Towns Deal GFA from Hastings Borough Council.

Re-tendering the contract was briefly considered and rejected as there was significant benefit to retaining existing consultants on this contract to undertake this additional scope and as such re-tendering at this critical stage may have risked delivery and caused reputational damage to both East Sussex County Council and Hastings Borough Council.