Forget Hastings, Go West!
ALEXIA MASARDO
The West St Leonards Forum invites you to attend an exhibition about this interesting and mostly overlooked part of our seaside community.
Locals have been contributing photographs, pictures, insightful anecdotes and historical knowledge in preparation for the Go West exhibition, which will be held over Easter, at the Electro Studios gallery in Seaside Road, West St Leonards.
With input from a panel of judges, and many other local organisations and individuals, you will be able to look to the past, examine the present and make suggestions for the future.
The forum was established by a dedicated group of volunteers, spearheaded by their redoubtable chairperson Virginia Vylela. After many years of hard work, they are due to be designated a Neighbourhood Forum by Hastings Borough Council, joining many other community groups in the UK since the 2011 Localities Act was passed.
Neighbourhood Forum status will enable the people of West St. Leonards to have a greater say in the future of their community – to set out a positive vision for how they want their community to develop over the the coming years in ways that meet identified local need. They can then put in place planning policies that will help deliver that vision, or grant planning permission for the development they want to see.
It seems that many people still aren’t aware of this important community right enabling formal input to a Borough Councils’ Local Plans for how an area can be developed.
So, head West folks. Electro Studios will host a private view on April 7, and thereafter the exhibition will remain open from 10.30-16.00 each day until Sunday April 16. You’ll be able to find out about extraordinary happenings on the beautiful Bulverhythe Beach over the centuries and what really happened on Galley Hill….
Informative talks will also be held on April 9 at 11.00, entitled “The Train Now Arriving” and April 10 at 11.00, entitled “Dinosaurs”. To find out more visit www.weststleonards.org.uk or www.facebook.com/WestSt.LeonardsForum.
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