Dispute over fate of Crowborough's Pine Grove escalates

THE future of Crowborough's soon-to-be redundant Pine Grove is still up in the air.

Wealden District Council, which is moving to Hailsham, favours selling its Crowborough headquarters for around £2 million to a developer for housing. But East Sussex County Council and Crowborough Town Council have their eyes on buying it on the cheap and sharing the space instead.

Despite claims the district council was not in favour of the town council having an independent evaluation, spokesman Jim Van Den Bos said: "There's nothing wrong with the town council getting its own valuation, but we've suggested working together to get a joint valuation."

Talks were held behind closed doors last week to try to reach a compromise.

Town councillor Quentin Burch said: "The building could be demolished, of course, but in the current climate I can't see a developer being interested in it.

"The site is only worth what someone is willing to pay and the market is rubbish.

"Who would want to go there?"

Deputy mayor Peter Cowie said: "I see Pine Grove as a liability, not an asset.

"Wealden wants as much money as it can get, which is all very well, but what it's worth to us is different to what it would be worth to sell.

"We can afford to take a bit more time than Wealden, which wants this sorted this financial year.

"The town, district and county councils – we always fight over money as we represent different people."