Trinity Homes has started work on the former magistrates court site in Eastbourne town centre: 30 flats for social rent, car free, finished by autumn 2028.

Building work has begun on the empty former magistrates’ court site in Old Orchard Road, where Eastbourne Borough Council is putting up 30 flats for social rent.

Contractor Trinity Homes has taken possession of the site and started enabling works ahead of the main construction programme, the council announced on 17 August. The council expects the block to be finished in autumn 2028.

What is being built

The planning permission, application 240418, is for a three to four-storey apartment block. The committee report sets out the mix:

  • 9 one-bedroom, two-person flats
  • 19 two-bedroom, four-person flats
  • 2 two-bedroom accessible flats on the ground floor, each with a parking bay

The rest of the scheme is car free. The report says the town-centre location, within 400 metres of the railway station and all the main bus routes, justifies that, and the legal agreement attached to the permission includes a car club with three years’ membership for every flat, a travel plan, a bus service contribution and a local labour agreement. The site is not in a conservation area, but the Town Centre and Seafront Conservation Area lies about 25 metres to the south.

The council’s release adds landscaping “designed to encourage biodiversity”, with communal and private outdoor space.

All 30 for social rent, but only 9 are guaranteed by the permission

The council says every flat will be affordable housing for social rent. The planning paperwork is more cautious. Council policy for this part of town requires 30% affordable housing, which on 30 flats is 9. The report explains that only those 9 could be secured through the Section 106 agreement, because planning obligations must be “necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms”. The other 21 are described as “voluntary on the part of the developer” and dependent on grant funding from Homes England and the council’s own resources.

That is a distinction worth keeping in mind. The council’s intention is 30 social homes; the legally binding minimum is 9.

A tender that had to be run twice

The route to a contractor was not straightforward. The council published a design and build tender on 22 August 2025 on the government’s Find a Tender service. On 21 October 2025 it issued a termination notice saying the contract “will not be signed”, giving the reason as “an error was found in the evaluation criteria which will be amended and reissued”. The council’s August release describes the eventual award to Trinity Homes as following “a successful tender process”. The contract value has not been published in either notice.

Timeline of the Old Orchard Road scheme from the planning committee in November 2024 to expected completion in autumn 2028, with the flat mix and comment counts
The scheme's key dates, from the planning committee report, the tender notices and the council's release. Graphic by Eastbourne Live

What neighbours said

The application drew 35 letters: 28 objections, 3 in support and 4 neutral. The objections recorded in the committee report centre on:

  • parking, in a street residents describe as already heavily congested
  • how deliveries and trades vehicles will be handled for a car-free block
  • the height and massing against the villas in Old Orchard Road
  • balconies on the frontage and overlooking from them
  • a parking survey that objectors said was not done at representative hours

The report notes that this scheme was already a storey lower at the rear than a withdrawn 2021 application (reference 210751) for 35 flats. Supporters said the reduced mass and revised design were acceptable. Officers gave the effect on the nearby conservation areas “moderate negative weight” but concluded the benefits of housing on a brownfield town-centre site outweighed it.

The former court was a two-storey flat-roofed building, since demolished; the site was vacant when the application was decided.

What it means for you

  • Old Orchard Road and Saffrons Road residents: the council says it has agreed working hours, site traffic management and controls on noise, dust and vibration with the contractor, and promises “regular communication with neighbouring properties”. It has not published the agreed hours. If they are not being kept, the council’s own planning enforcement team is the route, via our Eastbourne planning applications page.
  • On the housing register: these will be council homes let at social rent, but not before autumn 2028. The council has not said how they will be allocated.
  • Drivers: the permission includes a traffic regulation order and off-site highway works funded by the scheme. Details will appear as statutory notices nearer the time; our Eastbourne roadworks and travel page tracks those.

Sources