About the Friends of Eastbourne Seafront (FOES)

 

Save Eastbourne Bandstand. 
When Eastbourne Borough Council closed Eastbourne Bandstand  indefinitely in January 2021, a few of us got together and formed  Save Eastbourne Bandstand campaign group. Thanks to the tremendous support of the local community, we successfully saw the first phase of the restoration of the Bandstand undertaken resulting in the partial reopening in 2023.

 

We became Friends of Eastbourne Seafront on 5th April 2022, forming a not-for-profit-company limited by guarantee.   Foes has a management team and members who pay an annual fee, and we operate entirely with volunteers.

Our volunteer Welcome Team, Gardening Team, Events and Fundraising Team and those who do so much in the background, are vitally important and make a big difference to our presence on the seafront.

 

Annual Seafront Guide.
We publish an annual Seafront Guide and in 2023, (with a grant from Visit Eastbourne), published a Dog Friendly Guide for Eastbourne.

 

Children's Cycle Track.
Aware that there are no facilities for younger children on the seafront, we put together a proposal to create a children's cycle track. We gained permission from Eastbourne Borough Council to use a piece of adjacent to the existing Skate Park, and received funding from The John Jackson Charitable Trust to create it. The track was officially opened in June 2023 by Caroline Ansell, Eastbourne's local MP.

 

We continue to lobby and challenge those with responsibility for the seafront. 

 

Our priorities are;

The Bandstand. To see the work on the Bandstand continue. We want to see the next stages of work progress until the Bandstand is fully restored and reopened.

 

The Redoubt. We have been campaigning for the reopening of the Redoubt Fortress for several years. We are pleased that Eastbourne Borough Council have allocated a substantial amount of money and have at last begun major work to get it reopened. We would like to be involved in its re-opening and its future.

 

 The Seafront. We continue to be concerned by the lack of maintenance and appearance of areas of the seafront, which is not helped be anti-social behaviour.  We continue to campaign for change and improvement.

 

Visitors and local people.  The seafront is what draws visitors and gives such joy to local people. We want it to be the very best.

Closed up historic buildings, businesses which are not looked after, do not open or have the monopoly, are not in the best interest of the town.

 

We will continue to campaign and work in practical ways to see Eastbourne Seafront at its best.