Author Archives: HIP - Page 10
Independent Beer Shop to Close
JOEL CHESHIRE One of Hastings’ most cherished independent beer retailers, Eel & Bear, has announced it will be closing at the end of the summer, marking the end of a…
Become an Emmaus Trustee
Innovative homelessness charity Emmaus Hastings & Rother is looking for new trustees to support the charity’s staff and volunteers in running the community and its two shops. They are looking…
Free Help with your Energy & Water Bills
Hastings Furniture Service (HFS) is expanding the support it offers local households by hosting free weekly energy and water advice sessions at its Priory Meadow store, in partnership with local…
Old Town Traders Stand Together
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN A spate of break-ins along George Street and High Street in recent weeks has caused distress to local traders and prompted calls for an increased police presence in…
Sixty Years of Cosprop
ALISON BUCHANAN John Bright OBE, award winning costume designer and founder of the Bright Foundation, is a source of inspiration for many. His costume and prop house, Cosprop, specialising in…
Making Links in Hastings
With immigration front and centre of the political agenda, MEL STEEL visits the Links Project to look at the issues being faced by local residents – who also happen to…
Choral Music for Easter
Hastings Philharmonic Choir will perform a programme of beautiful choral masterpieces: Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Brahms’ Schicksalslied (‘Song of Destiny’),accompanied by the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Marcio da Silva.…
Support for families living in temporary accommodation
Families with children currently living in temporary accommodation in Hastings are set to receive a financial boost thanks to a government grant of over £55,000. Hastings Borough Council has confirmed…
Iran’s Unrest Amid Hastings Calm
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN The turmoil gripping Iran is being closely followed by the Kurdish Iranian community in Hastings. Omid Ibrahim, the owner of the popular Kings Barbers on Queens Road, says the impact…
Council Secures Funding to build New Homes for Those in Need
Hastings Borough Council has been allocated more than £ million from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) to provide homes for vulnerable residents over the next four years. The…
Town Says No to Casinos
Hastings Borough Council Leader Cllr Glenn Haffenden and Deputy Leader Cllr Julia Hilton have joined over 35 other councils in signing a letter calling on the government to reform gambling…
Poetry Corner
Molly The BourneBEN BRUGES From some distance in time, Turner’s print centres the stream, rushing down towards the sea, a foot-bridge over this open sewer links the impoverished fishing community…
Seeds of Change: How Local Growers Are Transforming Hastings
Warrior Square is bursting with daffodils, the sun is finally rising just after , and – whisper it if you like, but I’m more than ready to shout it –…
FOOTBALL: Back-to-Back Wins for United
24 February: Hastings Utd 0, Three Bridges 328 February: Hastings Utd 3, East Grinstead Town 07 March: Beckenham Town 1, Hastings Utd 3 Hastings United went down 3-0 in a…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW – Oil Be Damned: Part Five
Extractive Capitalism By Laleh KhaliliPublished by Profile, 2025, rrp £ BY TIM BARTON Khalili’s new book is unexpectedly timely. Its subtitle is ‘how commodities and cronyism drive the global economy’.…
FOOTBALL: Specials Start Another Season
While most local football teams are coming towards the end of a long, wet winter season, the 1066 Specials club opened theirs last Saturday (7 March) at Bexhill College. !066…
The Hastings Project Opens Up
HARRY HAWKINS On a balmy (well, balmy for March) afternoon, a new watering hole for St Leonards opened its doors for the first time. It’s 5pm and the pub is full (I’m…
Big Sexy Catharsis
OLIVER SPEER “I’ve killed so many men, but I saved one,” Lydia Lunch says as she puts an arm around me to pose for a photograph at The Piper. She’s…
RUGBY: Good Times for Blue-and-Whites
28 February: Hastings & Bexhill 38, Old Williamsonians 07 March: New Ash Green 0, Hastings & Bexhill 65 MAX MOWBRAY It’s been a fortnight of strong results for Hastings &…
Taking on the NHS
ROSIE BROCKLEHURST FRANCZAK recounts the litany of health service errors that led up to the premature death of her husband Felicity LaurenceRosie and Paul Ultimately there is no headline story…
New Tables, New Tastes
STEVEN SHORT When it comes to food and drink, Hastings and St Leonards continue to punch well above their weight. Times restaurant critic Charlotte Ivers ruffled a lot of feathers last summer…
Green Light for £3m Hastings Castle Visitor Centre Project
Plans to transform Hastings Castle and the West Hill Café have taken a major step forward, with Hastings Borough Council’s Cabinet backing the project despite a single objection received during…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter MASSIVE WASTE OF MONEY The Panorama programme The Pothole Problem featuring ‘Juliet in Hastings’ lays it out very clearly: If you’re fixing potholes, your strategy has failed, because in…
News in brief
TERRORISM SUSPECTS WELCOME COURT RULING The High Court ruling over the legality of banning Palestine Action has been welcomed by local protestors. Gabriel Carlyle, arrested in Parliament Square in July…
Arrests over Social Housing Sell-off
BEN BRUGES Two members of Hastings Housing Rebellion have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass following the group’s occupation of a house in Battle. Occupied House in Battle After…
RUGBY: Defeat in Top-of-Table Encounter
14 February: Sittingbourne 33, Hastings & Bexhill 18 MAX MOWBRAY A depleted Hastings & Bexhill team travelled to Kent League leaders Sittingbourne on 14 February and suffered defeat…
Wish You Were Here?
HELEN MURPHY & NICK PELLING There is something both alluring and rather sad about the English seaside. Somehow the seaside is full of the promise of naughtiness and fun, and…
HOCKEY: Saxon Warrior Takes Final Bow
Michael Acott – ‘Micky’ – had two reasons to celebrate this month. It was his 70th birthday. And he played his last game for South Saxons after a career of…
FOOTBALL: Crucial Week for United’s Future
14 February: Hastings Utd 0, Merstham 0 21 February: Deal Town 3, Hastings Utd 0 HUGH SULLIVAN Hastings United remain perilously close to the relegation zone of the Isthmian League’s…
Democracy Delayed is Democracy Denied
LEAH LEVANE It seems that many of our politicians thought that if elections were too inconvenient or expensive then they could just dispense with them. Thankfully this rather blasé approach…
Reflections on Fat Tuesday
JOEL CHESHIRE & HARRY HAWKINS FRIDAY ‘Unconvention’ kicked off Fat Tuesday: a one-day grassroots music conference held at the White Rock Theatre Studio. This brought together musicians, industry professionals, promoters, educators…
Schools Go Underwater
Sussex Underwater and Strandliners are joining forces in a new partnership project, Sussex Coast Explorers, which will support young people in Hastings and St Leonards to connect with the sea and marine…
The NHS – Your Experiences
Our lead story shows improvements across the local East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, but how do the statistics reflect the experiences of patients themselves? Here HIP has collected reports and…
EXCLUSIVE: Local NHS Numbers in Recovery?
JAMES PRENTICE An exclusive investigation by the Hastings Independent has revealed sustained improvements in figures for the local NHS trust. These enhancements in service delivery are spread across a broad…
The Greenest Building is the One that Already Exists
GRACE LALLY of Hastings Housing Alliance advocates for a retrofit approach to upgrade housing stock The draft Local Plan supports demolishing hundreds of social rented flats in the Four Courts,…
Help Create a New Local Plan
CLLR MARK ETHERINGTON, Lead councillor for strategic planning and climateadaptation, Hastings Borough Council We need your help to create our new Local Plan which will guide the development and future…
This Local Plan is a Weak Plan
Paul Barnett, Leader of the Hastings Independent Group, Hastings BC We all know there is a housing crisis in Hastings. The council has made tackling this a priority. And many…
Why Hastings’ New Local Plan Matters
HELEN KAY, Leader of the Labour Group Hastings BC Hastings council has launched a consultation on its proposed local plan. Why is this important? A local plan is one of…
Arson Suspected in Magdalen Road Fire
JOEL CHESHIRE A fire at the disused former convent site on Magdalen Road in St Leonards required a major response from emergency services last Sunday (1 February) afternoon. Police have…
Not a Plan for Walkers or Cyclists
ANNA SABIN, Hastings Urban Bikes Where are the walking, cycling and bus networks? Not in the Local Plan and certainly not on the ; For the residents of our newer…