Archives for Health and Environment
Octopus Rescue: A Sign of Things to Come
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN The Pett Level Rescue Boat team, usually tasked with helping distressed swimmers and vessels, found themselves in uncharted waters on Saturday 4 July when they responded to an…
The Forest Beneath the Waves
CHRIS WILLIAMS Most people in Hastings know the sea from the shoreline. Surfers know it from the waves. Divers know it from below. But very few people realise that just…
Walking Miles to Save Puppies
SOLE IRIART I am a 50-year-old carer from St Leonards. My working life is dedicated to supporting and caring for others. But outside of my profession, I find myself standing…
Questions About Dementia
Dementia is the fastest growing area of need in adult social care and its rapidity varies, but thereis currently no cure and not all sufferers are elderly. As ROSIE BROCKLEHURST…
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…
Nurturing Nature?
PHILIPPA BOGLE says the devastating release of plastic pellets by Southern Water at the end of 2025 has focused attention on another East Sussex beauty spot which is threatened by…
Oil Spill in Solid Form
PHILIPPA BOGLE was among the first of the hundreds of volunteers helping clean up millions of plastic beads released by Southern Water which are polluting our beaches - working alongside…
Deliberate Environmental Responsibility
HANNAH-LOUISE SAMPSON profiles a Victorian Hastings home that embraces complexity rather than starting over, in a refit that was nominated for the Stirling Prize Hugh Strange Architects undertook the restoration…
Bothered by Badgers
HELENA JONES considers whether badgers in urban gardens are prized guests or pesky intruders When a young woman – we’ll call her Sarah – bought her first home, a charming…
Sink or Swim
SUSAN MCFIE One in ten working age people is currently claiming sickness or disability benefit in the UK. It’s costing a fortune: £48 billion in 2023-24 and expected to reach…
Rotten or Ripe
SUSAN MCFIE asks what on earth has happened to our fruit For some, memories of Christmas include waking to a stocking at the end of the bed stuffed with inexpensive…
Counselling Minus
HUGH SULLIVAN reports on how NHS cuts are set to deplete another mental health service In HIP 263 we reported on the withdrawal of NHS funding from the Eggtooth Project,…
Living With Damp and Mould
KEN DAVIS, a retired architect, a director of Energise Sussex Coast and member of the Hastings Urban Design Group and Transition Towns explains why so many Hastings houses are damp…
Pell Mell to Save Bexhill
DAVID EP DENNIS explains how a project that includes the repair of a rusty tide gate could help prevent annual flooding of Bexhill’s Egerton Park – but help is needed…
A Tale of Two Sectors
KENT BARKER reports on the apparently growing divide over the environment between large- and small-scale farmers in France A striking image for anyone travelling through France this summer is the…
Action Man, Now!
LUKE FUNNELL - Founder and Director of Project Rewild - echoes David Attenborough’s view that no one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about…
Up Banking
With millions of coastal homes at risk from flooding, DAVID EP DENNIS outlines the vital workof the Environment Agency in keeping us all from being inundated by rising sea-levels Kent…
Land of Giants
David EP Dennis National Trust Images/Kirsty GibbonsGiant redwood in the garden at Scotney Castle, Kent The giant trees of Beauport Park woods are huggable, but only if you have a…
Climate Plagues
DAVID EP DENNIS Over the course of history across the world, there have been terrible outbreaks of diseases, and the local climate plays a part in spreading sickness. Science can…
Greening Hastings
IAN BUNCH argues that the council needs to step up to the mark and lead a volunteer army to plant trees in Hastings. Kent Barker Most of us love trees…
Climate Weirding
Local permaculturist TIM REDFERN has observed how, as the seasons go out of kilter, so too do the plants. Over the last three years I’ve been working in a series…
Chickenpox Parties
KENT BARKER questions the logic behind the recommendation to add a chickenpox vaccine to the existing shots for young children. Was it just a coincidence that, in the week that…
Power to the People
KENT BARKER Will Hastings become part of the growing campaign to turn its streets and rooftops into mini renewable power stations? A number of local people have started to circulate…
Amazing Colour
Roma Clark Working as a colour therapist and colour profiler I always find it so interesting learning about colour choices; how they affect our moods and reflect the people we…
Environmental Vandalism
KENT BARKER reveals a new post-Brexit threat to honeybees, looks at polluted rivers in Kent and Sussex, and considers the international reaction to Rishi Sunak’s net zero reduction and oil…
Crystal Healing
ROMA CLARK For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by crystals, rocks and stones, picking them up from the pavement or the beach and digging them…
Inconvenient Facts
JONATHAN ANDREWS presents a personal take on the climate change debate and questions the assertion of NASA - the US science and technology agency - that 97% of scientists believe…
Abandoning Climate Hope
Kent barker Has the UK Government given up on Climate Change? The 2008 Climate Change Act commits the UK government to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 100% of…
Spine Health – How to Look After Your Back
CATHERINE PINHORN Our spine is key to our ability to move. A flexible spine will take us to any place we desire, yet most of us do little to protect…
Meltdown
The current trajectory of carbon dioxide emissions means that global temperatures could increase by as much as °C by the end of the century. RICHARD PRICE says that scientists think…
Just Stop Protests
Given the scale of the climate crisis as outlined on this page, KENT BARKER asks what we can and what we should do to combat it. Let’s be quite clear,…
From Grieving to Healing
How 5Rhythms Dance saved my life EMMA LEECH I was a young woman in my early twenties in love with a musician, a guitarist called Ray Jeffery. Like so many…
Get Creative to Boost Your Health and Well-Being
SARAH MILNE Hastings is jam-packed with art and creativity with numerous galleries and a choice of exhibitions, shows, classes and workshops available most days. While we are lucky to have…
Release Your Inner Silver Swan
SARAH MILNE Photos: Ula Blocksage “You dance like a sack of potatoes tied in the middle. Your mother is wasting her money on these lessons!” These were the harsh words…
Make Time for Better Sleep
CATHERINE PINHORN Hastings has been basking in glorious summer sun over recent weeks and, while sunny days boost our physical and mental health in many ways, they can be detrimental…
Sonic Hugs and Oceanic Boundlessness
A Journey into Sound Therapy SARAH MILNE Recently, almost every event listing in Hastings mentions a ‘gong bath,’ or ‘sound bath’ and many of us relish the opportunity to unroll…
Burning Anger
KENT BARKER tries to stay green and keep up with the changing environmental times. Frankly I feel conned. Back in the 1990s I was persuaded to swap my petrol car…
Men’s Health in Hastings
Sarah Milne With sunny climate and long beaches, Hastings has long been looked upon as a place of health and wellbeing. From the late 1700s, through the Victorian and Edwardian…
Unmasking the Spectrum
SARAH MILNE The summer term has begun, and young people across Hastings are currently entering their final months in school. It’s a stressful time of exams and future planning. For…
Protesters Flush Wasteful Management
ROBERT RALPH On Tuesday 14 March, a group of residents from Hastings and St Leonards Extinction Rebellion and The Clean Water Action Group displayed their disgust at Southern Water’s continued…