NEWS IN BRIEF
Change at the top
Hastings Borough Council has appointed an interim Chief Executive on a part-time job-share basis. Robert Cottrill will share the role with Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough councils.
The appointment is for an ‘initial’ six-month period, and Mr Cotterill will continue as the chief executive of the other councils, dividing his time between each authority. HBC has recently also been sharing “a limited amount of officer capacity” with Lewes and Eastbourne. A spokesperson for HBC said “This new arrangement further strengthens our partnership with colleagues in Lewes and Eastbourne and enables the council to fully consider options for a permanent chief executive appointment.”
Mystery still surrounds the departure of HBC’s last Chief Executive, Jane Hartnell, who “stepped down from her post by mutual agreement” at the end of October. The council issued a brief press release at the time helpfully stating “there will be no further comments made”.
Water Compensation
Hastings MP Helena Dollimore has called on David Black, the Chief Executive of water regulator OFWAT, for an urgent decision on compensation for 30,000 local residents who lost supplies for up to five days in May.
Ms Dollimore told him “Southern Water have tried to wriggle out of their legal duties citing exceptional circumstances… six months on from this water outage I would be grateful for OFWAT to rule whether compensation is due in this incident.”
The MP questioned Mr Black at the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee on 26 November and in a follow-up letter sdaid: “As evidenced by the planning application ref RR/2006/3499 that refers to a need to replace ‘existing outworn raw water pipeline’, it appears that Southern Water knew as far back as 2007 that the water pipeline concerned needed replacing. Therefore, it is hard to see how they can claim exceptional circumstances.”
Easy Money
Hastings Borough Council is inviting applications for grants from the latest iteration of the Household Support Fund – a £421 million government programme with a cat’s cradle of strings attached. Households who can demonstrate they are finding it difficult to pay for the cost of food, energy and water can apply as long as they are over 18, are Hastings residents, and have less that £6,000 in savings. Furthermore, they must be receiving Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and/or Universal Credit with Housing Costs, and must not be eligible to receive the winter fuel payment. They cannot have received grants from the previous round of funding that ended in September. The council says the fund will close on 31 March 2025 or when the money has been allocated “whichever comes first”. And anyone subject to ‘immigration control’ is exclucded. Furthermore, you can only apply online.
hastings.gov.uk/benefits/hsfund
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