Eastbourne Town Board

The new Eastbourne Town Board will oversee how £20 million of government funding is invested to help level up the town over the next 10 years.

Latest update (9 Sept 2024): The Eastbourne Town Board meetings have been paused until the Autumn Budget, which will be announced on Wednesday 30 October 2024.

Eastbourne Town Board Members

Richard Garland - Chair of the Board

Richard is Independent Chair for the new Eastbourne Town Board. Richard is a local business owner, chartered surveyor and former Chair of Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce. The appointment was made following an application process and interview panel that included the Leader of the Council, Cllr Stephen Holt, the MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon, Caroline Ansell, and the Chief Executive of Eastbourne Borough Council, Robert Cottrill.

Richard is a chartered surveyor with over 35 years' experience as a built environment professional. A career that began in DLO management and economic development before working as a surveyor at Lincoln Cathedral and then Grosvenor to manage the London Estates of Mayfair and Belgravia.

After heading up multi-disciplinary project teams for Owen Williams across London and Sussex, Richard went on to co-found Gradient Consultants in 2004. A multi-award winning consultancy, Gradient is 50% female owned, specialising in building surveying, construction project management and compliance consultancy. In 2021 Gradient became the first independent B-Corp in Eastbourne. Gradient are a climate positive workforce and committed to being Net Zero by 2030.

Richard has lived and worked in Eastbourne for 20 years and has a passion for projects that maximise their social and environmental impact. Richard served on RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) World Governing Council for 4 years and continues to serve in the role of non-exec chair of the RICS London Region Board. Other current appointments include director and immediate past president of Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce.

Stephen Holt

Stephen Holt has been Leader of Eastbourne Borough Council since 2023. He was first elected in 2015.

As a Councillor, Stephen represents the Devonshire Ward. Stephen is also the Chief Executive of Your Eastbourne BID, which supports town centre businesses in Eastbourne.

He has also been a Director of the Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce and Eastbourne Carnival.

Katy Bourne OBE

Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne was re-elected for a fourth term in 2024.

Katy was raised and schooled in Sussex before graduating from Aberystwyth University. She still lives in mid-Sussex, is married to Kevin and has two adult sons. She was a successful business woman before entering politics and is now in her fourth term as Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Sussex making her the longest serving female PCC and one of only two have been elected four times.

The PCC's role is to hold the Chief Constable of Sussex Police to account for the performance of the Force, effectively making the police answerable to the communities they serve.

Katy is responsible for setting the strategic direction and priorities for Sussex Police through the Police & Crime Plan. This includes setting the police budget and local police precept - the amount residents pay for policing in their council tax.

She also has a statutory duty to commission support services for victims of crime - including stalking and sexual and domestic abuse - and to deliver community safety initiatives including restorative justice and crime reduction grants.

Katy is currently National Lead of the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners (APCC) portfolio for Business/Retail Crime and Chair of the Sussex Criminal Justice Board. She is also the APCC National Spokesperson for Stalking and a Board Director of the APCC. Katy was a former Chair and non-Exec Director of the national Police Digital Service and former Chair of the APCC. In June 2019 she was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of her public and political service.

Catherine Clifford

Catherine was born into hospitality with a family-owned hotel in Eastbourne, started in 1912 by her great-great Aunt. Over several years she learnt her trade in hotels around the country, working in every department from the ground up, eventually returning as a partner at the Lansdowne Hotel.

Catherine has evolved the business over the last 10 years to become a leading hotel in Eastbourne, investing heavily in the business and winning various awards. The business engages with and supports the community and strives to be on a route to sustainability in all areas.

Being immersed in this industry all her life has given Catherine a unique, multi-generational perspective on the local tourism and hospitality landscape. This long-standing connection has instilled in her a profound commitment to the community and an understanding of its needs and potential.

As a member of the Management Board for the Eastbourne Hospitality Association, Catherine is a prominent voice in the town, advocating for and supporting all things hospitality and tourism. She relishes the opportunity to serve the community and is dedicated to helping deliver the Towns Fund to benefit Eastbourne in the best way possible.

David Wakefield

David Wakefield is the co-founder of On The Sly Music Ltd, which recently relocated its HQ, including bespoke studios and a podcast facility, to Eastbourne from London's West End. Proudly employing local staff, they have quickly integrated into the business community and joined the Chamber of Commerce.

Born and raised in Eastbourne, David is married with three children and has deep roots in the town. He has been a school governor for over 14 years, primarily on finance committees, and has served as a customer representative on the Board of Directors for Southern Railway.

With over twenty years of experience running his business, David has successfully managed complex projects like the soundtrack for London's New Year's Eve fireworks and the FA Cup opening ceremony. His work can be heard on national BBC Radio and Virgin Radio.

David brings his expertise in technology, business development, marketing, and education to the Town Board and is committed to supporting its mission.

Duncan Kerr

Interested in sport from an early age, Duncan played international squash representing Scotland from age 14 culminating in a full International Cap aged 19. Duncan completed a BA 'Sport in the Community' Degree majoring in 'Management & Scientific Analysis of High-Performance Athletes'.

In January 2000, Duncan progressed from Sports Co-ordinator at Heriot-Watt University to Director of Sport at Reading University before becoming Managing Director and subsequently Chief Executive of Gosling Sports Park in Welwyn Garden City. In March 2008 Duncan moved to Neath Port Talbot to take up the role of Managing Director with Celtic Community Leisure, the first Leisure Trust established in Wales in 2003. After a very successful 6 years in South Wales, Duncan was appointed to his current post as Chief Executive of Wave Active.

Duncan is a highly motivated and innovative leader, capable of impact across multi-site operations with the ability to create and deliver a vision whilst focusing on operational detail. Throughout his career, Duncan has been an advocate for the role physical activity can play as part of the primary health care pathway to support those with health conditions.

Duncan has lived in Eastbourne and now Seaford for the last 10 years and feels passionately about the communities that he serves. Duncan has enjoyed being part of the Re-imagining Newhaven Board and feels he has relevant and appropriate experience to serve on the Eastbourne Town Deal Board.

Jim Mathieson

A qualified engineer, Jim has over 40 years' experience working in the IT & Telecommunications industry, built on a solid foundation that has included various management positions in large corporates and participation in major infrastructure projects. His career started as an engineering apprentice with Post Office Telecommunications where he was trained in a number of disciplines including electronics, computing and of course, telephony.

Having attained a City & Guilds HNC in Telecommunications, he gained experience in a number of hands on engineering roles, and went on to enjoy working in a number of hybrid commercial positions including product management and marketing. These have involved him in the development of a number of web technologies, fabric elements of the Internet and design of one of the most ambitious data centre projects in Europe. Jim has also acted as consulting and design lead to large corporates, international financial institutions and HM Government.

Since 2002, Jim has co-founded a number of technology focussed companies, helping take one of them to OFEX. In 2011, he helped create and secure funding for Eastbourne-based CloudConnX, a highly successful national provider of broadband, Wi-Fi, cloud and Internet services with its own data centre in the Eastbourne area. Employing some of the UK's best network engineering talent, the company has helped a significant number of Eastbourne businesses to benefit from high speed Internet access and provides critical infrastructure to local authorities and blue light services across Sussex and the UK.

Joanne Rogers MIPM

Eastbourne resident Joanne Rogers is a Member of the Institute of Place Management. In 2020, she was appointed a High Streets Task Force Expert for the government, helping towns and cities across the UK to recover from the pandemic and unlock the potential of their high streets.

Over the past 30 years, Joanne has held leadership and consulting roles in economic development, marketing and tourism, advising locations, governments and businesses locally and overseas.

Joanne is a former Vice Chair of the East Sussex College Group and advisor to the New Zealand Government. Joanne is also a full-time carer.

Loretta Lock

Loretta has a passion for ensuring equity and accessibility for all. She is founder and Managing Director of Defiant Sports, started initially as a voluntary organisation and then constituted as a CIC in 2017. Defiant Sports provides physical activity, Sports and social wellbeing options for all those with a barrier to participation.

The organisation is community driven, directly serves around 400 members of the local community through a comprehensive, and growing, timetable of activities plus bespoke sessions for other community groups, education establishments and businesses. Defiant employs local people, currently 11 staff, often those who struggle to get employment opportunities elsewhere. Defiant has a host of volunteers and offers work experience and student placements, alongside mentoring opportunities and apprenticeships. Sustainability is important to Defiant Sports, having pledged to half their Carbon Footprint by 2028.

Loretta has over 21 years' experience of volunteering in various roles throughout Eastbourne, and believes the town is a wonderful place, with wonderful people and many, as yet unrealised opportunities to enhance life for the entire community. Loretta had the honour of bringing up four children in Eastbourne, mostly as a single mum. She now lives in Devonshire Ward with her long-term partner and bulldog! She loves to learn and find new ways to support the community, particularly those whose voices often go unheard. Loretta is delighted to accept a role on Eastbourne Town Board and will ensure equity and accessibility are key considerations in all matters going forward.

Shoes Simes

Shoes is a local business woman and community leader, who lives in the Redoubt area.

Currently owning own five independent hospitality businesses, in four different wards of Eastbourne, employing over 100 people.

She gives time voluntarily to support the town's community. With roles in Your Eastbourne BID, Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce, Eastbourne, District Enterprise Agency and Friends of Princes Park. She is passionate about hospitality, music, art, design and people.

Shoes says 'I love Eastbourne dearly, it is important to me to work towards making our town the very best it can be'.

Dr Yusaf Samiullah OBE

Yusaf brings 40+ years work experience in many countries around the world, with UK Chartered professional qualifications in environment, waste and water management, sustainability, climate change adaptation and mitigation response and civil engineering (C.Eng. FICE). International responsibilities have included Chairing Infrastructure Oversight Boards for the World Bank and African Development Bank and helping supervise the UK Aid Programme in Africa and Asia.

Yusaf has been an academic in the University of London, an Environmental & Engineering consultant in the private sector and retired early as a Senior Civil Servant in Whitehall. He has run his own international development consultancy company from Eastbourne for the last fourteen years.

He is a Court Assistant for the City of London Worshipful Company of Water Conservators. And as a former UK government expert (and grant-supervisor) on urban development and placemaking, he understands the interplay between people, projects and natural habitats and hopes to help mediate win-wins for all through local consultation.

Yusaf Chairs the Polegate Town Twinning Association (twinned with Appen near Hamburg & Saintry-sur-Seine near Paris) and has been a resident of Eastbourne for 24 years.

Margaret Neal

Margaret has lived in East Sussex for 40 years and has a background in education. Margaret was a teacher and headteacher and is currently Chair of a Special Needs Multi Academy Trust. Margaret believes that, through education, positive change can be achieved in people's lives. Her particular focus is on the training and employment opportunities of young people and feels that, through the newly constituted Town Board, there will be a unique opportunity for the whole community to work together to improve life in Eastbourne.

Mark Holland BA (Hons) Dip LA

Mark was a chartered Landscape Architect for almost 25 years, working for an award-winning environmental planning and design consultancy in East Sussex. He worked on both public and private sector projects, specialising in major transport schemes, heritage planning and the restoration of historic parks and gardens. For several years Mark was an advisor to the Millennium Commission, leading a team which reviewed the technical and financial feasibility of landscape led projects.

In 2012 Mark and his wife moved to Eastbourne, buying a guest accommodation business. Mark has been a member of the Hospitality Association since 2013 and brings a working knowledge of the challenges facing hospitality in the town. Mark is also an active member of the Friends of Eastbourne Seafront, which works to improve and restore the seafront, the 'jewel' in Eastbourne's crown. Mark sits on its Management Group and represents the group at its regular meetings with EBC Councillors and senior Officers. He is also on the Environment Agency's Coastal Communities Group, which discusses the EA's plans for future flood defences across the town.