Archives for News - Page 12
Ore Community Library Safe and Secure
Ore Community Library has secured a 20-year lease to secure its future and ensure it will remain a community cornerstone for years to ; The library was closed in 2018…
Planned Impermanence
ROD WEBB Decisions made by the planning department of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) are a regular source of complaints from the local community. These might appear to be an over-zealous…
New MP Raises UBAT Concerns
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN Helena Dollimore, the newly elected MP for Hastings and Rye, has raised her concerns about the ongoing dispute between local members of the National Education Union (NEU) and…
Historic Lifeboats find New Home
TIM MCDONALDChairman Nautical Museum Trust Had you been passing by the junction of The Bourne and Harold Road at about 5am on Monday 1 July, you would have seen a…
Sussex Exchange Follows Azur into Closure
HUGH SULLIVAN The Sussex Exchange restaurant, bar and cinema complex on the Queensway link road has closed after its operating company folded into insolvent liquidation. Prospective customers who had made…
OPINION: HIP HOT Hustings – an Afterword
KAY GREEN I’ve just been to the HIP HOT Hastings Hustings, and it was a really good one. Thank you, HIP; thank you, HOT. There were some very interesting people on that…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter Hostile to the Jewish Community Dear HIP I drew the short straw and attended what I knew would be a hostile Hastings hustings, in order to offer snarky live…
Peace Camp at Hastings Weapons Factory
Palestine campaigners in Hastings held a 48 hour ‘peace camp’ outside the General Dynamics arms factory on Telford Road in Hastings last weekend from Saturday noon to Monday morning. They…
Social Landlord Leaves 53 Homes Empty
MERLIN BETTS reports from the Housing Rebellion protest and occupation of Clifton Court The blocks of Clifton Court sit on the edge of Castle Ward, minutes from the town centre.…
Striking Teachers Demand Better Funding
MERLIN BETTS Earlier this week, members of the National Education Union (NEU) went on strike at five schools across Sussex, four of them in Hastings. The union’s principal point of…
Bay Snatch in the Old Town: Who Dunnit and Why?
HUGH SULLIVAN In May this year, Caroline and Nigel Harvey bought a small terrace house in Courthouse Street, which runs between the High Street and The Bourne in the Old…
The HIP HOT Husting
INGRID ALLAN The Hastings Hustings, that most alliterative of general election staples, got off to a lively start yesterday, as seven candidates (and one empty chair) made their case directly…
Councils Objectto Solar Farm in Crowhurst
HUGH SULLIVAN Local green energy co-operative Energise Sussex Coast (Energise) has lodged a planning application with Rother District Council, seeking its approval of a prospective solar farm off Swainham Lane…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Dear HIP, We have written to all the General Election candidates in Kent, East Sussex, and some in Essex asking them to sign up to the Bring Back Euro Trains…
Candidate Proliferation
There will be eight candidates on the general election ballot paper in Hastings & Rye, ten in Bexhill & Battle. Of these, it’s pretty safe to predict that not more…
Phil Colley: ‘Responsibility to Humanity’
Phil Colley is a long-time resident of and campsite owner in Brede. He is widely travelled, speaks eight languages and claims a “deep understanding” of global politics. His allegiance to…
Nicholas Davies: ‘A Genuine Communist Programme’
The website of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) proclaims that it is a revolutionary political organisation “coher around a genuine communist programme… Our goal is to overthrow capitalism and…
Paul Crosland: Hashtags and Silent Contemplation
Paul Crosland stands as an Independent candidate with a penchant for hashtags. #50PerCentToElectAnMP is one of them. Crosland polled just 565 votes in this constituency in 2019. However, that represented…
Taking Power Back through Community Conversation
MERLIN BETTS Despite the abysmal state of our national politics, last Sunday (16 June) I felt like there was a bit of electricity in the air, a sparkle in the…
‘An Encouraging Start’
Jewish group welcomes election candidates signing pledges for respectful debate Half of the candidates standing in the General Election for Hastings & Rye have agreed to a set of pledges…
Teachers to Strike Over School Trust Management
MERLIN BETTS On Saturday 8 June the National Education Union (NEU) held a meeting to consult with parents and the public on possible strike action against University of Brighton Academies…
WOH!
A regular space to bring ideas and reflections. We discuss and write together to create awareness & encourage positive change for women and girls. VOICES, VOTES & VARIETY “Love and…
Open Letter to Prospective Parliamentary Candidates
From Hastings Jews for Justice We are a new group in Hastings and surrounding districts formed amidst the unfolding genocide in Gaza with the aim of holding our political leaders…
Guy Harris: Alive and Kicking
PAUL McLAUGHLIN writes the last of in-depth profiles on our local prospective parliamentary candidates who will be contesting the General Election on 4 July Older residents of the town may…
Academy Trust Row Continues
Parents and carers at Baird Primary Academy recently received a letter announcing a move from two form entry to “ form entry,” almost certainly meaning different year groups will be…
Hastings Assembles: A Different Politics
FELICITY LAURENCE As we approach the general election, here in the swing seat of Hastings and Rye there is a growing swell of unease and even distrust about many aspects…
Assembly of Voices
“… When you really do allow all kinds of people to input their wants and needs, the same themes come to the fore over and over ; People like things…
Restore Nature Now
JILL KAYE On Saturday 22 June, members of local campaigning group, Unite for Nature, will join thousands of others in central London for what could be the UK’s largest-ever gathering…
Green Takeover, Independents Frozen Out
PAUL McLAUGHLIN The appointment of an all-Green Cabinet by Julia Hilton, the leader of Hastings BC, has sparked discontent among the Hastings Independents group of councillors. The Greens and the…
Burst Pipe Replacement ‘Wasn’t Necessary’
HUGH SULLIVAN HIP recently reported that in 2007 Southern Water obtained planning permission from Rother District Council to replace the mains supply pipeline on the basis that it was “outworn”.…
Even Banks Should Learn: Homes Aren’t Assets
MERLIN BETTS We’re marching down the middle of the street. I’ve got a notepad and placard in hand, red jackets rustling, red banners flying. We’re chanting, “The renters, united, will…
Southern Water – Another Day, Another Mess
KATE SHAW There is real public outrage about the sewage pollution in our seas and rivers. Last Saturday (18 May) communities around the UK came together in a national day…
Hastings Commons Renovations On Track
Hastings Commons (HC) has released an up-to-date report on their major renovation works at three properties: 12 Claremont, Eagle House and the rooftop of the Observer Building (OB). Planning permission…
Mayor Margi Takes Labour Lead
Following the local election at the beginning of this month, as reported in HIP 251, the political parties now represented on Hastings Borough Council hold numbers of seats as follows:…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Goodbye and Thank You Dear HIP My husband and I ended up staying in East Sussex with our daughter due to the war in our home country, Ukraine. We want…
Flood Report Blames Rain, Tide…
and Southern Water HUGH SULLIVAN A report commissioned by East Sussex County Council into the flooding of Hastings Town Centre in October last year has been delivered by consulting engineers…
Challenge to Dog Exclusion Zone on Stade Beach
HUGH SULLIVAN The extent of the dog control public space protection order (PSPO), which has limited the exercising of dogs on beaches, parks and green spaces across the borough since…
The New Councillors
Billie Barnes (Silverhill, Labour) comfortably defeated the sitting ward councillor, Lucian Fernando of Reform UK. She says she was inspired to stand from a campaign to re-open the Silverdale swimming…
The Hub and the Pavilion
HUGH SULLIVAN The distance between Sidley Recreation Ground and the De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP) on Bexhill seafront is around a mile and a half. Historically and culturally, it has…
St Leonards Church Up For Sale
The abandoned Grade II listed church on St Leonards seafront is being marketed for outright sale by Hastings agents Dyer & Hobbis. Offers “in the region of £500,000” are ;…