New hotel owner to invest £1million

He plans to invest 1m bringing the hotel back to its "former glory."

He will manage it himself with the help of his wife, Lesley.

News of the no-job-losses purchase of the Cooden Beach was broken to relieved staff at a meeting in the hotel's Strand Room functions suite.

Effectively the hotel - put up for sale at 2.5m last October - had three owners in less than a week.

Contracts were exchanged between Jarvis group and developers David Gould and Peter Stavri last Thursday. Mr Stavri told the Observer that by prior arrangement the hotel was immediately sold-on to Mr Kimber, less its Sea House annexe in Herbrand Walk. The partners now intend to seek Rother planning permission to re-develop the Sea House site with flats.

News of Mr Kimber's purchase brings to an end a long period of uncertainty over the future of Bexhill's last remaining major hotel.

In an interview at the hotel at the end of an exhausting first day in charge, a delighted Mr Kimber said: "I am very excited about the prospects of developing the hotel and bringing it back to its former glory.

"It needs a lot of new investment here. Jarvis Hotels have starved it of investment in the last few years.

"We are going to bring designers in to re-design the interior of the hotel completely and refurbish it from top to bottom. It will be a 1m refurbishment.

"We have a fabulous location here. We feel that we are potentially by far the best hotel serving the area.

"We have a fantastic staff. Everyone will be staying. We have had an awards ceremony today for staff who have been here 32 years and some have been here 35!

"I would just like to thank all our loyal clientele for continuing to support the hotel all these years. We are hoping to reward them by giving them a smarter, better hotel."