Hot Topics

Seaford Town Council is currently receiving a high volume of public enquires regarding the following topics:

Public Toilets
Seafront litter bins
South Hill Barn Parking
Seafront Parking

The Town Council has detailed, under each heading below, updates on these specific areas/facilities.

Public Toilets

The Town Council is aware that the recently refurbished toilets on Seaford Seafront near the Martello Tower are being heavily used and at times this is causing long queues.

Comments have been made that these toilets are not being cleaned regularly, however the contractor currently cleans the toilet block three times per day.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to control misuse of these toilets which spoil them for other residents and visitors. There has been a high number of reports of misuse and vandalism, which has resulted in items being forcefully broken, removed and the toilet facilities generally being left in a poor state.

The Town Council is not ignoring these issues and is working hard to mitigate the risks and damage to these facilities:

CCTV is now installed to deter purposeful vandalism
We are carrying out research into the toilet furniture within these facilities and whether they can be replaced with an even more durable and anti-vandal equivalent
We are working with the cleaning contractor to continue to replenish products and report vandalism

The Town Council shares the frustrations of residents and visitors and apologises for any inconvenience this causes.

The map below provides details of all public toilets in the town, should you need to use another facility:

Map show location of public toilets in town - 1 Buckle Car Park Public Toilets, 2 The Salts Public Toilets, 3 Place Lane Public Toilets, 4 The Old Town Hall Public Toilets and 5 Martello Public Toilets

Martello Changing Places Facility

It is with great regret that the Town Council was required to close this facility again due to the door being forced open, substantially damaging the door and frame and rendering it unsafe for public use.

Following a period of closure at the end of April, the Town Council worked at pace to fix this facility and get it reopened for the first May bank holiday weekend. Unfortunately, only a few hours after it was reopened, a resident/visitor found themselves in need of assistance to exit the facility which resulted in the Fire Service using force to break open the door.

This has resulted in this facility sustaining a huge amount of damage which will take time to fix. We must also investigate and understand how and why the toilet user could not exit the facility, to ensure that this does not happen again.

The Town Council is working with RISE (the company which installed the facility) and the Changing Places Toilets organisation to not only fix this issue but receive advice for the ongoing management of this facility.

For details on the nearest alternative changing places facilities, please visit the Changing Places website.

Compostable Toilets by Martello Tower

The temporary compostable toilets which are currently located at Martello Tower are due to be moved in the coming months.

The Town Council is required to obtain permission from the South Downs National Park Authority to relocate them to South Hill Barn, which is a process that takes considerable time and is out of our control.

Once the right permissions are obtained, a contractor will be booked to dismantle, transport and then erect them in their new location. In the meantime, they will remain onsite at Martello but not open for public use as there is no contract in place for them to be cleaned and maintained in situ.

The Town Council is doing all it can to get this project actioned as soon as it can and your patience is appreciated.

Seafront Litter Bins

The Town Council has been made aware of occasions when the bins along the seafront have been over-filled, and this has caused issues with rubbish either blowing around the seafront or being picked up/moved by seagulls.

Whilst the bins are regularly emptied and extra empties have been introduced during high session (the summer months), this problem is exacerbated by large items of rubbish being placed in the bins (entire picnics, disposable BBQs, broken beach accessories, etc.).

The Town Council is reliant on residents and visitors not placing large items in the bins or leaving rubbish alongside the bins. Please take rubbish home with you wherever possible.

This is an issue experienced in many towns so the Town Council is looking at renewed “Take your litter home” signage for the bins to act as a reminder, alongside working up a wider strategy for how to overcome these problems.

The Town Council has received requests for recycling facilities along the seafront. Having researched this, the advice received from the relevant waste authority is that such facilities are at such a high risk of being contaminated with the incorrect type of rubbish that the contents would not be able to be recycled in any case.

In addition to the above, please visit Plastic Free Seaford’s website if you would be interested in getting involved in regular beach cleans.

South Hill Barn Parking

The Town Council and many local residents are becoming increasingly concerned about the number of vehicles, especially coaches, trying to access the South Hill Barn car park.

Recent decisions by neighbouring sites at Seven Sisters Country Park and Birling Gap who have banned coaches, suggests that South Hill Barn is likely to see an increase in coaches trying to access and park at South Hill Barn.

To address this issue, the Town Council has established a dedicated South Hill Barn Working Group which is currently conducting and analysing traffic surveys in order to consider and implement suitable restrictions to mitigate the overuse of the car park.

This is not a quick fix and the Town Council needs to explore all the options, alongside exploring the unintended consequences of various options and this is taking time to complete. Work continues with stakeholders and partner authorities to look into the best options that can be adopted.

In the meantime, if you witness incidences of unsafe driving or vehicles causing an obstruction, these can be reported to:

East Sussex County Council:

Phone: Call 01273 335500 and select option 1. If no one answers, leave a message with your name and number, and a team member should call back within two days.

Email: Email the parking customer service team.

Online: Report the issue through East Sussex County Council’s website.

Reporting to Sussex Police: If a vehicle is causing an obstruction, contact Sussex Police by phone at 101 or email your local policing team

Seafront Parking

As a seaside town, Seaford has contended for many years with holiday-makers utilising the seafront’s free parking..

In 2024, the Town Council worked with Lewes District Council and East Sussex County Council to put in place parking restrictions to prevent motorhomes from parking for over 12 hours at Seaford Esplanade (the only parking area along the seafront that Seaford Town Council is responsible for).