Lib Dem kicked off Next Wave steering group

The 5.1 million Next Wave plan to re-develop Bexhill's seafront is overseen by a steering group made up of Rother District Council (RDC) officers, councillors and Alan Haydon, director of the De La Warr Pavilion.

Now, their number is reduced by one after the chairman of the group, Conservative Cllr Christopher Starnes, asked the only Lib Dem representative, Cllr Sue Prochak, to leave because of "negative views".

Cllr Prochak slammed the decision as "arrogant" and "undemocratic", though Cllr Starnes hit back, saying discussion within the group had gone past constructive debate, and the Lib Dems were not contributing enough to warrant their place.

The decision was made some weeks ago, but Cllr Prochak said she had learned of it just last week, adding: "I just think it reflects the way the whole project has been handled, in the sense that people have had to work hard to get information about it.

"I think it's a lost opportunity because there's so much lack of confidence in how this is being done.

"If you don't take people with you, there's bound to be a lack of trust."

Cllr Prochak is the only elected member of the steering group who has been outspokenly critical of the Next Wave project. As leader of Rother's eight Lib Dem councillors, she has consistently argued against features of the plan, which is RDC's largest capital project to date.

She said: "We were committed to being constructive, and recognising that the decision to go ahead had already been made. I just thought, why hasn't anyone discussed this with me? And can they do this? Clearly they can.

"I can see why they think we shouldn't be involved, because we have been negative, but having reached this stage our role is to see if we can reflect the views of the town."

Cllr Starnes defended his decision, saying he had "waited a long time for the Lib Dems to bring postive suggestions" to his group, but that he felt the party was "holding back" the project.

"The Lib Dems were involved in a protest outside a Next Wave exhibition, and I thought, let's keep an open mind. Then we had an outburst in full council, where the Lib Dems said they were totally opposed to it.

"I thought, she cannot bring anything positive to the meeting with such a negative attitude, so I asked her to step down. It wasn't acrimonious.

"They are against it but they are not giving any suggestions about how to improve it. It gets to a point where you feel you are being held back by them."

Demonstrators including Jackie Bialeska, chair of protest group Vox Pop, reacted to the news by campaigning outside the town hall on Wednesday.

But Cllr Starnes remained confident the project, which began in earnest on the seafront this month, would benefit the town.

"When much of the project is completed by the end of the summer it will be an enormous fillip to that part of the seafront," he said. "It was tired and shabby and needed an uplift.

"I became a councillor because I was so enthused for the seafront. This project is part of why I stood."

RDC, which separates itself from party politics, declined to comment on the fracas.