Archives for News - Page 20
Cost of Living: Direct Support
The appointment of Liz Truss as Prime Minister is expected to catalyse major new initiatives to cap energy price rises and/or to reduce taxes – to be announced quite probably…
People’s Assembly Attracts 200+ Gathering
Over 200 people gathered in Hastings Town Centre on Saturday 20 August for a People’s Assembly on the Cost of Living Crisis and the Climate Emergency. The Assembly was organised…
Train Service Disruptions
South Eastern Trains have announced that there will be no rail services between Hastings and Tunbridge Wells for nine days over October half term while Network Rail engineers replace the…
Celebrating Edith
Friends of Edith, a not-for-profit, charitable group who are licensed by Hastings Borough Council to maintain the Edith and Harold statue and its surrounds in West Marina Gardens, will be…
Bus Fares to be Capped
Single adult fares on all local bus journeys in East Sussex are likely to be capped at £2 for the first three months of next year. The Department for Transport…
A System Designed to Overflow
Most of Britain’s sewerage system – operated by Southern Water amongst other water companies since privatisation in 1989 but previously under public sector direction – has always, from its origins…
Alarm at Catsfield ‘Center Parcs’ Plan
By David EP Dennis The property development company Greystoke is drawing up plans for an extensive holiday complex on the historic Normanhurst Estate in Catsfield. It would contain 240 holiday…
No Change Sea Change
By Kent Barker Plans to complete – or even start work on completing – the Queensway Gateway to the A21 appear to have been put indefinitely on hold. Six years…
M&S – the Myanmar Connection
By Kent Barker Hastings Marks and Spencer is flouting corporate guidelines and continuing to sell clothing made under the appallingly repressive military dictatorship in ; According to the United Nations,…
Council Renews Role as Public Housing Landlord
Hastings Borough Council’s coalition cabinet of Labour and Green party councillors agreed unanimously last week to renew its role as a direct provider of affordable social housing. Since 1996, when…
People’s Assembly to Debate Cost of Living and Climate Issues
By Charmian Kenner A People’s Assembly on the cost of living crisis is to be held in central Hastings on Saturday 20 August from It will take place outdoors in…
Drought Measures
A total of just of rain – around one sixteenth of an inch – fell in Hastings over the whole of July, according to the meteorological office on St Leonards…
Fairlight sees off development plan – for now
Residents of Fairlight Cove were toasting Rother District Council and a public planning inspector last week when the news came through. The appeal by developers against refusal of their application…
Hart endorses Sunak
Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings & Rye, has broken her silence on the Conservative leadership contest, endorsing Rishi Sunak as prospective successor to Boris Johnson. She issued a statement on…
Race and Sex Bias Alleged in Appeal Case
A planning appeal launched by owner architect Elsie Owusu claims that Hastings Borough Council discriminated against her on grounds of race, ethnicity and gender in refusing to grant permission for…
Another Central Car Park Set To Close
Hastings Borough Council (HBC) has released information on its website that it is applying a portion of its £ Town Deal funding allocation to review development “options” for the Priory…
St Mary Trustees terminate lease
Trustees of St Mary in the Castle Charitable Trust announced last week that they will terminate their lease of the Grade II* listed event venue on Hastings seafront in November…
Grassroots regeneration for Bohemia
The Bohemia Creative Quarter is, according to Kate Rosie, owner of landmark St Leonards emporium Teddy Tinkers, “a wonderful community of people with over 80 different businesses and shops.” Within…
Does Hastings oppose 5G?
Council planners review new mast site proposals Planning applications for the siting of 5G masts at three new locations across Hastings and St Leonards have been lodged with Hastings Borough…
Candidate selection process lambasted
Helena Dollimore, a 28-year-old Oxford graduate who works as a senior manager at Unilever (in its Global Sustainability arm), has been selected as prospective Labour Party candidate for the parliamentary…
Hottest day, warmest night
Tuesday 19 July was officially the hottest day ever in Hastings. The Borough Council’s volunteer meteorological office on St Leonards seafront recorded a top temperature of °C (), which was…
Heated protests: takes direct action at County Hall
By Erica Smith Activists from Extinction Rebellion took occupation of the main office of East Sussex County Council (ESCC) in Lewes for two consecutive days last week in climate protests.…
Horntye to Claremont
Relocation Still in the Balance By Hugh Sullivan The intended relocation of prime cricket and hockey clubs from Horntye Park to Claremont school, to be financed by development of Horntye…
Ambulance Waiting Times Exposed
Leadership in the service provided by local NHS ambulance trust SECAmb (South East Coast Ambulance Service) was last month branded “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission after an inspection earlier…
Debenhams Redevelopment to get £400k Cash Boost
The Hastings Town Deal Board (“the Board”), which has control of £ of government funds for ‘levelling up’ investment in the town, has approved a £400,000 cash grant towards the…
Party Politics Get Personal Internal turmoil for both Labour and Tories
Following on from our lead report in HIP 204 that Cllr Maya Evans has been excluded from a “long list” of prospective Labour party candidates for the next parliamentary election…
More of us and older
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed population figures compiled from the 2021 national census. They show that, whereas in England as a whole the population grew by to…
New Trustees rally to defend Flagship School
The Flagship school in Hastings, which opened last September with the aim of providing specialist education for neurodiverse children with social, emotional and mental health needs (SEMH) and/or autism spectrum…
Not on the List
Would-be Labour MP Maya Evans questions her exclusion A “long list” of candidates from whom one will be chosen to represent the Labour party at the next general election in…
Shared route, little common ground
Although never as simple as pro or anti bike, visitors to Alexandra Park last Saturday may have gained that impression. Once again, the vexed question of a shared use cycleway…
Our Friends Electric go under
Hastings Cargo Company, which has provided a delivery service across the town for the past three years by electric bike, announced this week that its batteries will be charged up…
The Ducks have landed
The St Michaels Hospice fundraising ‘Follow that Duck’ public art trail was officially launched on Friday 17 June with a warehouse full of large fibreglass ducks, each custom-painted by a…
Bird flu – Domestic and in the Wild
All poultry on a chicken farm in north Bexhill have been destroyed in a cull ordered by DEFRA (the government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) following the identification…
Old Town Goes Modern
By Nick Pelling and Helen Murphy Despite a range of objections, Hastings Borough Council has just approved the planning application to upgrade the Pirate Crazy Golf site on the Stade in…
Hastings Launches a Bright World of Imagination
By Helen Murphy A fantastic new educational centre for young people has just launched in Hastings. The Bright Foundation is based in the beautiful setting of Rodgers Farm – ten…
A Town Called Refuge?
By Sarah Milne Next week’s ‘Refugee Week’ comes at a time when war in Ukraine has led to Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War. Over the last…
Regime Change
Greens accept two posts in Labour-led cabinet At the first meeting of Hastings Borough Council since the local elections, Labour party chief Cllr Paul Barnett was voted back last week…
Pier Pressure
In HIP 201 we reported on the recent victory in the Employment Tribunal of the former Hastings Pier engineers Peter Wheeler and Daisy Hill in their claims against Lions Hastings…
Cllr Carr: the dissenting party
Green party leader Julia Hilton showed undisguised emotion in her address to the assembled council last week when she thanked Cllr Claire Carr for her work on behalf of the…
5G Mast on West Hill? Pro and Contra
By Ben Cornwell The application submitted by the Wireless Infrastructure Group for the installation of a 20-metre-high 5G monopole at Halton Reservoir, Priory Road, has been met by a wave…