A STRUGGLING shopping precinct has been bought in a "statement of intent" to resurrect a "ghost town".

Lewes District Council has stumped up £500,000 to buy the lease of Newhaven Square and is due to complete the deal today (Monday, May 9) ahead of £80 million of investment pouring into the area.

Newhaven saw its last town-centre supermarket, the Co-op, up sticks and relocate to the town's outskirts in February, with locals claiming the move was the last nail in the coffin for their high street.

The council, which already owns the freehold of the site and most of the surrounding town centre, plans to spend another £300,000 on revamping the area to attract new businesses and more footfall.

Councillor Andy Smith, the leader of Lewes District Council said the purchase was "a statement of intent".

He said: "Towns like Newhaven up and down the land are struggling. This one needs some help.

"We have enough faith to buy back the lease to make a good job of it.

"The whole improvement will be stage by stage but we are determined to increase the potential for work, a place to visit and a place to live."

The council sees Newhaven Square as a key site in an overall regeneration plan for the town, thanks to an Enterprise Zone scheme that kicks in next year along with £80 million flowing in through other schemes.

The latest piece in the jigsaw has been welcomed by Newhaven's mayor, Steve Saunders.

He said: "At the moment it's basically a ghost town - we need to encourage footfall.

"This now gives us the flexibility to develop the area in a sympathetic way, hopefully consulting with residents.

"We are quite encouraged by this."

Cllr Saunders expressed a desire to reinstate a supermarket to replace the departed Co-op store and potentially a bank where once there was a HSBC branch that upped and left in 2014.

Officials grew concerned when the Co-op announced it was moving out of town in February, worried the move would put pressure on the few shops remaining in the centre.

The remaining businesses are willing the town centre to improve after years of decline.

Laurence Pulling, owner of I Like A Sweetie, said: "It's all about getting people back into the town."

The independent town councillor modified his sweet shop into a full-on convenience store after the Co-op closed and has helped organise Easter and Halloween events to get people into the centre.

He added: "I'm probably the most positive person in Newhaven - well, you have no choice.

"I think we have bottomed out. We are not going to go much lower."

IT IS ON THE UP – BUT RESIDENTS MAY NEED CONVINCING

WHILE plans are afoot for big changes in Newhaven, it could take some time to obliterate the bad taste from people’s mouths.

Lewes District Council may have succeeded in getting a Government-designated Enterprise Zone status for the town but that does not change how some locals see it.

Christine Humphrey is a resident who has seen the town change.

“Put a bomb underneath it and start again,” she told The Argus: “It isn’t a town any more, is it?

The 71-year-old, of Beach Road, has lived in Newhaven since 1973.

“We were a community all of our own but now it’s absolutely rubbish,” she said. “It’s just a hovel and that’s a shame.”

Miss Humphrey remembers when the beach was open and how her children used to play down there and regrets that it is now off limits.

“You learn to live with it,” she added, echoing the sentiments of other residents who just shrug when describing their town.

In the early 1970s Newhaven had a ring road completed around its core to address mounting traffic problems.

Over the ensuing decades, industry began to drop off and, to compound the issue, a new waste incinerator was plonked on Newhaven’s outskirts in 2012.

Jean Cantell, 81, has lived in Newhaven since before the Second World War and, other than as an evacuee, has never left.

Living in Fort Road, she said: “Newhaven seems to be the town that gets all the things nobody else wants.

“It was a lovely town but it died after the ring road was put around it.”

Her family has a history of building boats down at the docks from 1850. Her father, after the Second World War, built a pleasure boat that could take 100 people and would amble around the harbour. She doubts the demand would be there for a similar venture just now.

Another resident with an eye on the harbour is Wendy Smart, a pensioner who has lived in Newhaven since she was 11.

She said: “If the ferry were to go, that would be it. We have nothing here. There’s no heart to the place any more.”

Mrs Smart said her husband used to work on the docks when the town was thriving.

Steve Saunders, Newhaven’s mayor, admitted that the legacy of the incinerator made the town a “magnet” for other people’s rubbish.

He told The Argus: “I totally sympathise with residents. The town has become a bit of a magnet as a dumping ground for the district and indeed East Sussex.”

He remarked on a high number of applications for waste businesses in Newhaven and said: “Will decent employers want to come to a town that’s just full of waste and recycling businesses? We need to change that attitude – it is starting to come around.”

He also said the ring road was a mistake but added: “At the time it was welcomed and with the benefit of hindsight it’s easy to say we should have looked at other options. But now the only way it’s going to be solved is if we build a bypass and you’re talking about millions and millions of pounds to do that.”

Councillor Saunders said air pollution has been a concern among locals and they await the findings of a council consultation that closed last month. Despite traffic concerns, he sees free parking as key to getting trade back in the town.

Part of the lease buy-in that the council completes today (May 9) is also likely to break down a restrictive covenant stopping other uses for the town centre’s multi-storey car park in Dacre Road. Overriding it would allow for fairs and boot sales on its top level, breathing new life into the area.

The council says the Enterprise Zone is just one piece of the jigsaw. It believes the Enterprise Zone will create jobs and boost businesses and has included the town centre as one of eight sites in the town because it acknowledges the room for improvement.

The council is also looking over an application from the Environment Agency that will improve flood defences on both banks of the River Ouse.

Along with this construction boost if the application is approved in June, Newhaven has been selected by E.ON as the operations and maintenance base for the Rampion offshore windfarm, creating up to 65 full-time permanent jobs in the town.

Officials say the new University Technical College (UTC@harbourside), which opened last September, has already exceeded its targets for student numbers and will be increasing its intake this year.

All these things together mean more than £80 million being invested in Newhaven between now and 2020.

And with another growth quarter on Newhaven’s Denton Island open for business, acting as a catalyst for developing the town as a hub for “clean tech” industries instead of dirty waste, confidence in the future is growing.

TOWN'S FIGHTING SPIRIT

Natasha Hunt (pictured) spent 19 years of her life living in Newhaven before moving away for university. On her return, this is what she thought:

WHEN I headed off to university in September 2014, my parents also moved out of Newhaven and there was a sense of nostalgia returning to its old streets.

Walking through the quiet town centre I saw that some of the shops had closed down, while new independent businesses had popped up and replaced them.

Some people may think that Newhaven has a bad reputation but to me it will always feel like home. When I was younger I used to love spending days with family and friends on the sandy beach, watching the ferry come in and then wading out into the sea when it was low tide. Living near the coast is what I miss most of all now.

Newhaven might not have everything but there are still some independent shops, good transport links and, at the very least, it’s only a short bus or train journey away from bustling Brighton.

There was an overriding sense of community and resilience when I spoke to residents who had lived there even longer than I had. They spoke of the same problems and concerns that I and many others had also complained about: arguments about the West Beach and whether or not it should stay open to locals, the incinerator being built and the ring road around the town centre.

I got a sense from the residents that they felt like Newhaven was a dumping ground, with one person even remarking that "a bomb should be put under it and we should start again". They each had different opinions about what could be done to improve Newhaven, but all the ideas put forward seemed very costly.

Despite the complaints about Newhaven and the stigma that sometimes surrounds it, the people I spoke to had a fighting spirit and seemed optimistic for change.