News in Brief
Town Centre Snail’s Progress
Plans to improve Hastings town centre have taken a small step forward, with East Sussex County Council (ESCC) agreeing to advertise Traffic Regulation Orders and delegate authority to award construction contracts. This follows the 2019 award of £24 million for the ‘Town Centre Public Realm and Green Connections Project’ to improve visitor and bicycle access from the station to the seafront. Since then reams of red tape have delayed the start and a contractor is unlikely to be appointed before well into next year. Some residents are taking the projected completion date of 2027 with a large pinch of salt, remembering the nine-year delay to the Queensway Gateway link, also under ESCC control. Since the County Council is due to be abolished in 2028 some wonder if the town centre scheme will ever see the light of day.
Mayoral Candidates Line-Up
Various political parties have announced candidates for the new Sussex and Brighton Mayoral election due to be held next May. Labour are putting up Caroline Baxter, a businesswoman and currently member of Worthing Borough and West Sussex County Councils. The Liberal Democrat candidate is Ben Dempsey, an academic and wildlife conservation worker who is campaigning for ‘a fair deal for all residents.’ The Conservative candidate will be Katy Bourne, currently Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner. Since that post is being abolished by the Labour government to ‘cut the cost of unnecessary bureaucracy’, Ms Bourne will be looking for a new job.
The Greens are putting up their national Party deputy leader Rachel Millward who is also co-leader of Wealden District Council. In that capacity she recently wrote to the government minister for Migration and Citizenship ‘strongly objecting’ to the use of Crowborough Army Camp for asylum accommodation on the basis that ‘clearly accommodating 600 men on one site with no right to work brings significant risks.’ This might seem at odds with the Green Party’s liberal asylum policies that say ‘all applicants will be provided with accommodation’ and that the practice of housing asylum seekers in hotels is ‘inhumane and dysfunctional.’ Voters may want to ask Ms Millward: if not hotels and not her local army camp, then where?
Meanwhile a recent poll suggests the contest will be between the Lib Dems and Reform though the latter does not yet seem to have announced a candidate.
St. Mary’s Bars Drivers
St Mary in the Castle (SMITC) has been added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register. According to Hastings Borough Council, “with Pelham Arcade already on the at Risk Register, we hope that adding St Mary in the Castle will allow us to access additional funding opportunities across the whole site”. The council recently announced they were looking for an organisation or group with whom to work on the future of St Mary. Interested parties should register their interest by noon on Monday 15 December. One group, the ‘Drivers’, has already said it is keen to revive the venue as a community asset but is upset that the council turned down its request to hold a public open day at St Mary to generate interest and engage people to drive forward ideas and action. “We had a disappointing response from the Council and sadly, permission has not been granted to use the building. Therefore, the Drivers’ Open Day will unfortunately NOT be going ahead”, they said.
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