Author Archives: Hugh Sullivan - Page 9
GOLF CLOSURE: Par for the Course
A public footpath between Whatlington and Netherfield runs between fairways of what used, until three or four years ago, to be Battle Golf Club. These days occasional walkers make their…
GOLF: Not Enough Memberes? Criticise those you’ve got
Hastings & St Leonards Golf Club, formerly Beauport Park GC, was wound up and its course closed earlier this month after its owners Kellie and Chris Hawes announced ‘an extreme…
No Direction Home
There are, on most nights, between 40 and 50 people sleeping rough within the town of Hastings. That’s according to current data collected by St Leonards mental health and wellbeing…
The Adventures of a Google Local Guide
How ‘Lord’ Brett McLean puts his pals on the map You’re new in town, looking for a good hotel, restaurant, golf course, dog parlour, whatever. Once upon a time, back…
SHEIKH GULZAR: The debt gets personal
Sheikh Abid Gulzar, recent controversial buyer of Hastings Pier, told HIP in an interview which we published last month (Issue 106) that he was spending his own ‘good hard-earned money’.…
COUNTY MUSIC SERVICE – Funding Issue Escalates
We have reported previously on ESCC’s plans to cut their funding for the East Sussex Music Service hub (ESMS) so that teaching of musical instruments on an individual basis or…
NEEDS MUST – County Council Plans To Reduce All Services to ‘Core Offer’
At the Cabinet meeting of East Sussex County Council (ESCC) held on 17 July, councillors resolved to agree the development of a ‘Core Offer’ in line with a report produced…
FOOTBALL: Confident Agutter Plays It Southgate Style
On 24 October last year Hastings United slipped to 15th in the Bostik League South after conceding two late goals in a 2-1 home defeat by Thamesmead Town. Manager Chris…
FOOTBALL: Knee Surgery for Rodari
‘U’s Italian striker will be sidelined for months Hastings United FC have released news that teenage striker Davide Rodari, the boy from Novara in Italy who made such an impact…
CRICKET: Troubled Priory in line for drop
The three year tenure of Hastings & St Leonards Priory cricketers in the Sussex Premier League seems to be slipping away without reprieve or consolation. On the last two Saturdays,…
NHS CUTS: Getting Local
Hastings and Rother GPs Lose Budgetary Control As NHS Care Commissioning Group Is Required To Balance Books Hastings and Rother Care Commissioning Group (CCG) together with the neighbouring CCG of…
Scorched Earth
At 10 am on 1st June, as happens every day of the year, a local volunteer at the Met Office Weather Observations compound in White Rock Gardens took weather measurements…
FOOTBALL: The World Cup – A Morality Play
Many years ago – before Britain even entered the EU, let alone determined to leave it – a well-travelled South African explained to me a fundamental difference in outlook between…
Judge a man by the company he keeps
So how did the Sheikh with a string of failed and failing companies get his pier bid approved? “The aim throughout the process was that the heritage asset be sold…
HASTINGS COUNTRY PARK – Going Nowhere
No Current Plan to Reinstate Ecclesbourne Glen Footpath As many readers will know, the main walking route into Hastings Country Park from East Hill has been blocked off following serious…
Judge a Man by the Company he keeps
So how did the Sheikh with a string of failed and failing companies get his pier bid approved? “The aim throughout the process was that the heritage asset be sold…
Jubilation in Hastings (for now)
Popular expectations of World Cup success for the England team this time round have seemed at an all-time low. They are what a trade analyst might call a damaged brand…
The Sheikh of Eastbourne
Abid Gulzar arrived in Britain from northern India in 1965 aged 19. In a profile of him on the (national) Independent website in November 2015 at the time of his…
Engaging with the Community – On What?
On Friday 15th June the pier structure and its ongoing business were sold by the Administrators of Hastings Pier Charity to Sheikh Abid Gulzar, owner of Eastbourne Pier. At the…
HASTINGS COUNTRY PARK – Going up
Straw Bale Build to Start in August at Inflated Cost Building of the long planned “Interpretive Centre” at Hastings Country Park is hoped to start in August, according to Cllr…
“Known for it”
In April this year Hastings was identified by the Office of National Statistics as having the third highest rate of deaths involving heroin and morphine misuse of all local authority areas…
Drug-Abusing, Homeless and Dead
On 4th January this year the Hastings and Rother coroner’s office announced that there had been three deaths of homeless people in Hastings in eight days over Christmas. MP (and…
FOOTBALL: Less games, less travelling, lesser opposition?
Last year the Ryman League became the Bostik League in a shift of commercial sponsorship that brought little change in playing arrangements – or fortunes – for Hastings United. Next…
TENNIS: Keen on pleasing god
Members of Hastings tennis club Amherst are lucky to have as their head coach Doug Keen, once a winner on the US Satellite Tour and at the age of 49…
CRICKET Rain stopped play
On 14th August 1975 north London suffered a ‘storm of the century’ - 170 mm (nearly seven inches) of rain in three hours at its Hampstead epicentre, causing flood devastation – to…
INSTRUMENTALISTS GET VOCAL BACKING
The prospect of East Sussex Music (ESM) ending its instrumental teaching provision in the county’s schools by reason of a proposed withdrawal of funding by the Council (ESCC) has stimulated…
CRICKET – MAKE HAY IN MAY!
Priory’s Early Fixtures Invite Strong Start For the cricketers of Hastings and St Leonards Priory the real summer starts here. After a Cup opener in mid-April, a warm-up game at…
HIP READ: Quietly Occupied by Rose Miller
Artist, writer and long-time St Leonards resident Rose Miller has written a first novel set in Normandy under German military occupation in the Second World War. It chronicles the life…
FOOTBALL: Dave Ormerod – Back on Board
It was on April Fool’s Day 2015 that Dave Ormerod, former postman, put his pension savings into buying majority shares in Hastings United. After two and a half years as…
Party Party
Bikers and Morris Dancers get it together for holiday weekend The Hastings Mayday Run, which celebrates its 40th annual happening this weekend, is ‘one of the biggest free-to-attend motorcycle events…
MASTERS OF HASTINGS SPORT – We pay tribute
BOXING: Dave Bishop The West Hill Boxing Club celebrates its 80th anniversary next month with a gala fight night at Bannatynes. Its gym in Whitefriars Road has been the hub of…
HOCKEY – The Last Hit Cuts Deepest
Hugh Sullivan When it comes to cruelty, sport can be truly villainous. That’s how South Saxons Ladies’ team will view it anyway after a dramatic end to the Sussex Premier League…
GOLF – Equality of Opportunity
The sport of golf has long been associated with social snobbery, with patriarchal attitudes and other reactionary values. The fact that US President Donald Trump is reputed to have played…
Council to Profit from Property, say Labour
But how will that policy impact on community interests? Purchase of commercial properties in Hastings by the Borough Council (HBC) is a key feature of the Labour Party’s manifesto in…
West Marina
HIP has learnt that bids to Hastings Borough Council (HBC) for the development of West Marina - the site of the former Lido bathing pool at the western end of…
Heritage Assets – Can’t pay, Won’t Pay
Hugh Sullivan argues that Council plans to look after Hastings’ heritage rely on others being persuaded to provide the funding In 2016 Hastings Borough council commissioned a report by ‘historic environment’…
Drive For Mental Health Nurses – The Ins And Outs
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health and learning disability services in Sussex, is in line for an award for its campaign recruiting 150 new mental health and…
Building for Next Season
TEAM SPORTS ROUND UP It’s been a good fortnight at Pilot Field despite last weekend’s returning sleet and icy winds. Hastings United’s ace groundsman Simon Rudkin did wonders again to…
Lib Dems Give Way To Greens – But No Reciprocation
Hastings and Rye Green Party will be fielding a full slate of candidates in the upcoming council elections on 3 May notwithstanding a decision by Liberal Democrats to “stand aside”…
GET THE TEENS IN!
Renewed sports management contract targets missing young The posed press photo launching the renewal of the management contract for the council’s sports facilities at Summerfields and Falaise earlier this month…