WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter
Trinity Triangle: Jess Steele Responds
Dear HIP
In response to Alex Moojen’s letter in HIP 249 about the Trinity Triangle High Street Heritage Action Zone (TTHAZ) programme, we would like to clarify the purpose and allocation of funding, and invite people to our next open, public meeting.
High Street Heritage Action Zones (HAZs) were a £95 million government-funded initiative for 2020-24 with multiple schemes across the country. Funds were not set aside specifically for any particular town or high street, but places could apply against strict criteria and in competition with other bids. The successful bid for TTHAZ was written in 2019 by a group of partners led by Heart of Hastings CLT (now Hastings Commons CLT). It focused on a set of specific projects that had emerged over many years of local work and community engagement in the White Rock area, and included direct allocations for the rescue of the Observer Building (OB) and 12 Claremont.
TTHAZ proved able to deliver while other schemes struggled with Covid-related delays. That led Historic England to allocate additional funding to support the OB, as there was a clear funding gap and the ability to spend within strict timeframes because contractors were already on site. Both the OB and 12 Claremont are under ongoing development with further funding from other sources, and the impacts and benefits for the neighbourhood will emerge over many years.
Although Historic England rules meant the HAZ could not directly fund church renovation, we made grants to His Place and Holy Trinity churches to help them with fundraising, leading to successful applications to National Lottery Heritage Fund which will bring a further £5m+ into the neighbourhood over the coming years to renovate these two heritage assets at risk.
The Maintenance Club enables building owners who opt in to benefit collectively from awkward maintenance works such as gutter-clearing to help prevent future deterioration. This experimental project has been recognised by Historic England as an important innovation, and is likely to continue and expand under the leadership of the Love Hastings BID (Business Improvement District).
The Neighbourhood Stories/Cultural Programme strand supported more than 30 community-based cultural and creative projects.
We are proud of what we’ve achieved, but also recognise that it had limitations and faced some big challenges. There will always be different views about how to spend a limited pot of funding. In my 20 years in Hastings I’ve had many thousands of conversations with local people about priorities – tackling dereliction in a way that retains the character, diversity and affordability of the place has been a constant theme, and that’s what Hastings Commons is about.
We remain committed to ongoing engagement and transparency. Following our first open Q & A meeting in February, a second is now scheduled for 6pm on 17th September, and all are welcome. Details are at hastingscommons.com/about/frequently-asked-questions. We have already expanded these FAQs to include a dedicated page with details of all the TTHAZ funding, including how it was allocated and spent in accordance with the grant’s objectives.
Jess Steele, CEO, Hastings Commons CLT
Letter
Coralroot Not So Rare
Dear Editor
I was interested to read (Land of Giants in HIP 250) that David Dennis has rediscovered coralroot (Cardamine bulbifera) in Beauport Park. I’m not the only local who knows it’s there, and it’s good to learn it’s still present, as it’s been known in Beauport Park for nearly 100 years.
However, I was rather surprised to read that “we must not say exactly where it is”. Although coralroot is only native in two quite restricted habitats in England, it is not classed as rare, and where it grows it can be abundant. For example, it can be found in a number of places in Church Wood Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in St Leonards, as I am sure a fair number of locals know.
Coralroot is easy enough to recognise. It has pinkish-purple flowers with four petals, leaves with one to seven leaflets, and small dark purple ‘baby bulbs’ (technically known as bulbils) sitting between the leaf stalk and the stem. It looks not dissimilar to the related but much more common cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis), also called lady’s smock, but this plant has pale pink to white flowers and does not produce bulbils. And coralroot looks nothing like coralbells (Heuchera sanguinea), which is a popular garden plant and which occasionally naturalises on rough ground and waste tips.
Like coralbells, coralroot is also planted in gardens, though it does not seem to be widely available. In places it too has leapt the garden fence and is now increasingly found naturalised in woodland and parkland and by roads and streamsides, outside of its native locations in the Weald and the Chilterns.
By the time this letter is published, coralroot flowers in Church Wood may well be nearly over, but the bulbils tend to hang on till June and can help to identify it. (If pictures would be helpful there are some very good photos at plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.xhw). It is certainly still worth looking for and, even if you don’t spot it, a spring walk in Church Wood LNR will turn up many other beautiful plants, not to mention an array of birds, butterflies, bees and other creatures.
Of course, just because coralroot isn’t classed as rare doesn’t mean it’s not worth caring about. All wildlife (by which I include plants) matters, common or otherwise. I believe knowing (not necessarily by name) is one means of protecting. The more people who become familiar with their wildlife, the more they will cherish it and value nature for its own sake, and the more they will be prepared to defend it if and when it needs defending.
Dr Judy Clark
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