Peacehaven Co-op store to close this month amid plans for a redevelopment of the site

The building will be demolished and re-built by Morrisons, and the current Meridian Centre will be replaced with a Morrisons superstore, 10 smaller retail units and a new library space.

Council planning officers say the scheme will create around 390 full time equivalent jobs and improve the current site. The new supermarket is said to create about 190 full and part-time jobs, while the current Co-op currently has around 46 members of staff on site.

The revamp is expected to create 200 other jobs – up from 60 at present – and Morrisons said that the 390 jobs in all would be worth up to £4 million a year in salaries alone.

The company is also looking to add some housing on the eastern edge of the site at a future date.

Previously, Peacehaven County Councillor Chris Collier said: “The Morrisons development offers a great opportunity for Peacehaven. This valuable infrastructure is vital to the regeneration of our town centre and it’s vital that we keep having positive conversations with the developer as the plan moves forward. So far, they’ve taken onboard lots of community comments. One of the key outstanding issues is East Sussex County Council persisting with the reduction of our Library size.

“Fortunately, Morrisons took onboard our concerns, and there is another unit in the plan behind the current library. In my view it’s vital that the space in this other unit is used to support residents and ensure there is no loss of services and there is a chance to offer more to our community.”

While the Morrisons proposals have seen a significant amount of public support, there have been some objections from local residents.

Concerns have included the size of the new library, as the 302sqm unit proposed would be a third of the size of the current facility. East Sussex County Council says it had been looking to downsize the library to “smaller, more cost effective premises” since 2018. Other concerns include the loss of the shopping facility during construction and the potential for increased traffic in the area.