Author Archives: Kent Barker
Home Education Special: Huge Rise in Home Education
This HIP Special Report examines the factors fuelling the rapid growth in Elective Home Education and asks whether parents are given sufficient support when the school system is failing increasing…
Water Bill Boycott
KENT BARKER A campaign is growing for Hastings residents to join a boycott of payments to Southern Water. Organisations like Boycott Water Bills, Don’t Pay for Dirty Water and Extinction…
Not Lost but Gone Before
KENT BARKER There is endless fascination in using real historical figures as the inspiration for works of fiction. Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell and Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet are just two distinguished…
1066 Country Rides Again
KENT BARKER Hastings is expected to rejoin the 1066 Country marketing partnership in the near future. Deputy Council leader Julia Hilton told HIP that they had been in discussions with…
Arson Suspected in Hastings Convent Blaze
Hastings police are investigating a fire at the former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus on Magdalen Road in St Leonards as arson. The blaze was reported at around on Thursday…
Enforcement Threat over Convent Vandalism
KENT BARKER Following repeated incursions and vandalism in recent weeks at the former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus in St Leonards, lead member for heritage issues at Hastings Borough Council (HBC)…
Hastings Heritage in Peril
KENT BARKER Conservation campaigners have castigated Hastings Borough Council (HBC) for failing to protect the numerous heritage sites in the town. One said Hastings had a “sorry record of failing…
Council Tax: Thousands Prosecuted
Council Tax arrears have risen sharply in Hastings, and more households face court action as JAMES PRENTICE and KENT BARKER report Council tax debts in the Hastings Borough Council area…
Nuns’ Memorial Criticised
KENT BARKER The erection of a new memorial to the 46 nuns whose bodies were exhumed from the centre of a St Leonards Housing estate has been criticised over lack of consultation…
Tories Hand Council to Reform
KENT BARKER Reform UK has taken control of East Sussex County Council (ESCC) after receiving support from Conservative and Independent county councillors. Richard KellyEast Sussex County Hall While they do…
Development Special: Refurbish Don’t Demolish
KENT BARKER A growing movement in Hastings is opposing demolition of existing buildings, arguing that refurbishment is more cost effective and environmentally sound. Despite opposition from house builders and housing…
DEVELOPMENT SPECIAL: Local Plan at Tipping Point?
KENT BARKER It may be a long, complex and dry document, but no one should doubt that Hastings Draft Plan is vital for the town’s future. As lead council member…
Are Local NHS Services Improving?
A Freedom of Information request by the Hastings Independent reveals some statistical signs of improvement in local NHS health care. Waiting times and the backlog are coming down. Patient to…
Flash of a Neon Light
This year’s Christmas tree in the town centre has proved extraordinarily controversial. Hundreds of posts on different social media sites have either praised or condemned it. Here Your Voice editor…
Checkmate by the Sea: the Battle of Minds Returns to Hastings
Schach. Шахи. Sjakk. Fichille. Tàileasg. Schaken. Şah. Échecs. Skak. Satranç. Call it what you will - it’s still Chess in any language - and as TOBY BULA-EDGE and KENT BARKER…
Housing Developer Ignores Community
KENT BARKER A developer applying for planning permission for a new housing estate at Holmhurst Gardens is under fire for failing to consult the local community. KENT BARKER Foreman Homes…
Battle Lost to Save Heritage Church
KENT BARKER Campaigners fighting to prevent St Anne’s Mission Church in Hollington from demolition appear finally to have been defeated. In overturning Hastings Borough Council’s refusal to grant planning permission…
No Bulldozers – Yet
EDWARD LOFTS tells HIP why he wants to redevelop St Anne’s Mission Church VFGymEd Lofts I was born in Hastings in the Buchanan hospital in 1982. I ended up winning…
Volunteers Praised in Plastic Pollution Cleanup
KENT BARKER and JAMES PRENTICE The scores of volunteers who helped tackle ‘catastrophic’ pollution at Camber Sands have been praised by a government minister. The clean-up operation got underway after…
Deprivation Ranking
As the 14th most deprived local authority in the country Hastings has dropped two positions since the last survey five years ago; data analyst JAMES PRENTICE explains what lies behind…
Bio-Bead Clean Up Could Take Years
Pollution from millions of plastic ‘bio-beads’ released by Southern Water’s Eastbourne treatment plant could take years to clean up, a public meeting in Rye heard this week. MP Helena Dollimore…
Friends of Pier Set Up Potential Bid
KENT BARKER A seasonal mist seems to have settled over the future of Hastings Pier following the news that its owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar wants to ‘dispose’ of it (Pier…
Shock and Dismayat Nuns’ Exhumation
KENT BARKER A Hastings Borough councillor told a senior council officer he was “shocked and dismayed” when he heard that the graves of 46 nuns at Holmhurst St Mary had…
Corbyn Rallies Hastings – Again
KENT BARKER Jeremy Corbyn seems to like Hastings. Last week (18 October) he chose the drab-looking Horntye Sports Centre off Bohemia Road to launch – or perhaps re-launch - the…
Pier For Sale Again
KENT BARKER The Friends of Hastings Pier are urgently seeking ways to bring the landmark attraction back under community control, following news that the pier’s owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar notified…
MP Questions Nuns’ Exhumations in Hastings
Hastings MP Helena Dollimore has demanded urgent information about the 46 nuns from Holmhurst St. Mary whose remains were exhumed, cremated and then reburied as ashes. Ms Dollimore describes it…
Big Brother Is Watching
Residents of Hastings and across East Sussex could soon be subject to measures that have been condemned as serious erosions of civil liberties. Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne…
Southern Water Condemned For CEO Pay Rise
The new pay package of £ million for the Chief Executive of Southern Water - almost double his previous salary – has been strongly criticised by Hastings MP Helena Dollimore.…
Hastings Woman Arrested at Protest for Writing in Chalk
Grace Lally arrested at General Dynamics for chalking on road A Hastings woman has been arrested for alleged criminal damage after writing in chalk on the ground during a protest.…
Thousands petition Parliament over Conquest Cardiac Closure
More than 6,000 Hastings residents have petitioned parliament in a bid to prevent cardiac facilities being transferred from the Conquest Hospital to Eastbourne. As reported in the Hastings Independent in…
Crown Jewels?
KENT BARKER argues that what we ask of our royal family is completely unreasonable. If there is one positive thing about the hullabaloo surrounding the coronation it’s that it affords…
Coronation Fever
KENT BARKER charts the involvement of a prominent Hastings civic dignitary at the coronation of George II in 1727 Hastings had been one of the original Cinque Ports - probably…
COMMENT: Don’t Be A Vaccine Damage Denier
Kent Barker replies to the Comment in 7th April issue of HIP by Paul Barlow. The debate over vaccines and vaccination is already dangerously polarised and, sadly, Paul Barlow’s comment…
Covid-19 – The Known Unknowns
Kent Barker asks if UK’s East Sussex ‘patient-zero’ shifts the expected Coronavirus epidemic peak. And considers other confusing ; When should we expect the epidemic to peak? The government suggests…
Book Review
The AnarchyBy William Dalrymple Published by Bloomsbury at £30 Review by Kent Barker Embarking on The Anarchy is not for the faint-hearted. To start with the tome runs to more than…
Transcribing Hastings’ History
Kent Barker calls for a community effort to make the works of one of the town’s great historians and eccentrics more widely available to all. Students of some of the…
Small Is Beautiful – And Cheaper
Kent Barker looks at the cars most responsible for greenhouse gasses and particulates, and discovers that leaving the EU means manufacturers may have to take gas-guzzlers off the forecourt. Are…
Axe the PM?
Kent Barker wonders if Boris Johnson shouldn’t turn the pages of his history book back to the 17th century if he wants to keep a head. Pity poor John Ashburnham…
COMMENT: A Woman For All Seasons?
One wonders if, after politics, Amber Rudd might consider joining the Church and seeking a living in the parish of Bray? She’d be ideally suited to follow in the footsteps…
Hastings Group Opposes 5G Rollout
A new organisation called ‘Stop 5G’ has been launched in Hastings. It aims to raise awareness of the potential health hazards from wireless radiation coming from the new mobile phone network. The…