Archives for Health and Environment - Page 6
The Politics Of Influenza
Over the past two issues, HIP has reported that not only are flu vaccines likely to be ineffective, but may also have harmful side effects. So why does the government…
Community Cycle Project
Shortlisted For National Award, But Needs New Home Every Wednesday evening since 2012, volunteers at Bike Lab Hastings have opened their workshop on the Lower Promenade in front of Warrior…
NOVEMBER: Environmental News
Energy training lunch Energise Sussex Coast is offering free training on your lunch break - with pizza thrown in, too! This short course is suitable for people who work with…
Young People Look To A Greener Future
By Rod Webb Green energy, and how it might power our future, was the focus of a recent Sussex Coast College symposium where 12 high-profile energy ‘champions’ met students and…
Rother reinvigorated
During a recent community clean-up of the River Rother, 600m of bank was cleared of nearly 50kg of rubbish, including 229 plastic, aluminium and glass drinks bottles – just over…
Residents Deliver “wake-up-call” UN Climate Report to Council
Members of local campaign group Divest East Sussex recently delivered the latest UN report on climate change to a meeting of East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and urged the ESCC…
Environmental Crime Reduction
Hastings Borough Council’s community safety team and waste services have tackled a burglary and environmental crime hot spot in Ore. Colin Fitzgerald, lead councillor for the environment, said: “A long…
Council infrastructure repairs
Hastings Borough Council has completed the mandatory improvement works they were required to carry out at Shornden Reservoir in Alexandra Park. Councillor Colin Fitzgerald said: “The bare soil at the…
One Flu Over The Top
The flu season is back along with annual vaccination campaigns. But controversy builds as the British Medical Journal (BMJ) questions if flu vaccines are effective and whether patients are given…
Coming Back To Haunt Us
Landfill: potent pollutant, or potential profit? By Dave Young However assiduously HIP’s readers sort their rubbish, some simply cannot currently be recycled and goes to incineration – or more likely…
Get involved, get active and change your world for the better
Sustainability on Sea is an environmental micro festival, focussed on Hastings, St Leonards and Ore. Running between 21st and 30th September, it aims to promote a sustainable future by encouraging…
Environmental News
As part of Cycling UK’s ‘Big Bike Revival’ programme of events, Bike Lab Hastings (aka ‘Labyrinth’) is opening its doors on Sunday afternoons in autumn. Visit them 2-5pm if you’d…
Time to Roundup Glyphosate?
Susan McFie considers the latest court case against the producer of the world’s most sprayed weed killer Forty-six-year-old Dewayne Lee Johnson is terminally ill with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Last month a…
Up In Smoke
With Hastings topping the charts for the number of women smokers, former GP Kathryn Vale questions whether the government is fully committed to eradicating the habit. Recent statistics proclaim Hastings…
Quiet Shopping
Morrisons has introduced a weekly “quieter hour” for autistic shoppers All of the chain’s UK supermarkets will dim lights, stop background music, avoid the tannoy and turn down check-out beeps…
What on Earth are you eating?
It’s 20 years since scientist Arpad Pusztai appeared on Panorama and gave the UK its first insight into the worrying world of GM food. Susan McFie asks, did we heed…
Notes from the Weald
The second in an occasional series By Adam Russell For me, a walk is a lesson in humility, a reminder that I can never finish it. Not the one I…
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish are being exploited off the Sussex coast at an alarming rate, according to University of Brighton experts, who have just begun a new £60,000 research project with funding from…
Ocean Symposium and Marine Exhibition
Organised by the UN Hastings and Bexhill branch and supported by RVA, HVA and Sussex Wildlife Trust. Our oceans are under unprecedented threat from plastics, acidification, polar ice melting and…
EU Fishing Funds
Aided by Hastings Council, the Fisheries Local Action Group has gained grants of £800,000 from the EU’s Maritime Fisheries Fund– and there’s still time to bid for more before Brexit.…
Green Petition
Hastings Green Party has handed in a petition calling on Hastings Council to reject the proposed home and marina development in Old Town. “We believe this project would do irrevocable…
Pothole and Pavement letters
In Carisbrooke Rd, St Leonards not only are weeds growing in the pavements but the communal bins are pretty bad and rubbish is regularly all over the road. I don’t…
Combe Valley
A new Discovery Centre opens in the heart of the Combe Valley Countryside Park on August 5th. Visitor are invited to join a sponsored walk (eight miles, starting at )…
How green are our greengrocers?
Sustainability, local produce and recyclable packaging are important environmental concerns. To discover how such laudable goals work in everyday life, HIP visited three local fruit and vegetable shops Sussex Fruits…
Hastings is the Plaice to Be
Hastings Borough Council is developing a ‘Hastings Fish’ brand, after securing grant funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). It will be launched at the Seafood and Wine…
Changing the way we eat
Zelly Restorick We have less than 16 harvests left before experiencing serious problems within the UK food chain, warns organic farmer and activist, Patrick Holden, who set up the Sustainable…
Woodland Walking in the Heart of Hastings
Dave Young Only a few metres from Ore station is an urban green space, an area of lakes and woods on the site of a former power station, once used…
From Potholes to Pavements
Dave Young If ever there was a surface likely to cause people to trip or slip in the wet it’s these overgrown paving slabs on Carisbrooke Road St Leonards. Grass…
Why We Need a Local Food Network
Anna Locke writes about the newly launched 1066 Food Network is a local initiative intended to create a viable alternative community around Hastings. It aims to ‘join the dots’ by…
Innovative Land Management Harnesses Traditional Methods
What follows is a short press release from Hastings Borough Council. Frankie Woodgate and her heavy working horses Yser and Tobias returned to Hastings Country Park last week. Their traditional…
Stuck in a Hole
Whether taking a taxi to the centre of town, being one of the 33,000 May Day bikers or attempting to stay healthy and cycle, no one in Hastings can fail…
TESTING OUR TASTE FOR SURVIVAL
Susan McFie reports MUDDY WATERS Many years ago I recall someone telling me that her children didn’t like water. It seemed strange to me at the time. It was rather…
Notes from the Weald
“Where are you from?” people ask, as if place matters anymore. A wiser question might be, “where do you get your information from?” Or for the Neanderthal, “which formerly printed…
1066 Local Energy seeks eco show homes
As part of their 1066 Local Energy campaign, Energise Sussex Coast is planning an Eco Show Homes event for September and is looking for local people who’ve made energy efficient…
Oh…The Water
Without drinking water we’d die within a week, but Susan McFie argues that some of our water supplies may be seriously bad for health Water is everywhere. It falls from…
Alexandra Park Greenhouse Group Needs Help
The Greenhouse Restoration project in Alexandra Park is looking for volunteers to restore the wonderful 1930s building as a community horticultural facility. The scheme – which has charitable status and…
Summerfields Wood Spring Clean
Summerfields Woods, a precious oasis in the middle of Hastings and St Leonards, gets a lot of use, and some abuse! On 15th April volunteers are invited to join in…
Don’t Bin it – Get a Free Refill
You can help stop plastic waste By Dave Young With plastic pollution high on the national news agenda Transition Town Hastings wants to play a part in the countrywide Refill…
Walking Award
Hastings Old Town recently featured among 10 areas shortlisted for ‘Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood’ award, run by the Ramblers’ Association, and subsequently won with 21% of the vote. According to…
Living in a Plastic World
Susan McFie argues that it’s not just plastic waste that’s threatening life on earth, but that the chemical composition of the material itself is posing an increasing threat to our health.…