Archives for News - Page 36
Marina Proposal Sunk
The Hastings Harbour Quarter company which had put forward a multi-million pound scheme to develop a modern marina complex, including over a thousand new executive homes off Rock-a-Nore, has formally…
House-Building In Hastings
Public Inquiry To Test Council Figures Few observers will have been surprised when earlier this year a planning application made by a Hove property company BBCN to build nine houses…
GP HOURS EXTENDED: But Not For Walk-In Patients
By Hugh Sullivan and Lindsey Williams David Cameron’s Conservative Party manifesto of 2015 promised seven-day access to NHS services. And shortly after the election was won, then Health Secretary Jeremy…
Pier Future
Current owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar has made a submission to the planning department of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) setting out his future proposals for the pier. The Council have however…
Archery Ground Development
Hastings Borough Council planning and enforcement officers have intervened to stop unauthorised work on protected trees at the Archery Ground housing development site in St Leonards. The Development partners, Gemselect…
A Day in the Life of a Weather Volunteer
The weather kiosk on St Leonards seafront, erected between the pier and Warrior Square, has been there since the 1930s – part of Sydney Little’s grand seafront scheme. Maintenance of…
Labour Opts To Keep Bohemia Road Base
By Rick Dillon The future of the Hastings & Rye Labour Party headquarters in Bohemia Road, St Leonards was debated at a packed meeting of over 60 members last Saturday.…
Hastings Residents Join Global Day Of Action
Fossil fuel disinvestment no threat to pensions By Dave Young On 8th September climate change activists from Papa New Guinea to Panama called for a transition to a world without…
Climate Change – Or Just A Good Summer?
We check the data with Hastings Met Office The official figures are in. If summer is defined as the three months of June, July and August, the 2018 season has…
A Few Days Left To Have Your Say
There are just three days left for residents to comment on long term development plans for Hastings Town Centre and Bohemia. Hastings Borough Council’s Area Action Plan - which looks…
Mixed Message From Ark
Single Sex Education Set To End In Hastings Ark is an education charity that, according to its mission statement, “exists to make sure that all children, regardless of their background,…
From Home To Holiday Let
Does Hastings’ growing airbnb industry need regulating? By Katharine Wallinger Aaahh Hastings - it’s pretty safe to say we’ve arrived. The Sunday supplements and lifestyle magazines have smoothed the rough edges…
Hot Air about Regulation
In all civilised countries there is legislation which protects tenants from summary eviction. In England it is less protective than many people think it should be. Under the Housing Act…
Proposed Walk-In Centre Closure: Opposition Mounts
By Emma Harwood A campaign to prevent the closure of the Station Plaza walk-in health centre is building momentum as the cash-strapped Hastings and Rother Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has…
The Future of Hastings Town Centre
In the light of the council’s long term development plans for Hastings, what might the future hold for businesses, customers and employees in the town? By Emma Harwood PICTURE MONTAGE:…
Grand Plans for Hastings
Residents urged to have their say during public consultation. By Julia Hilton There is less than a month to go to comment on, and influence, the biggest urban development plan for…
The Seaview Project
Seaview has existed for 33 years, originally as an outreach centre to help former in-patien ts of Hellingly Mental Hospital cope with the outside world under the ‘care in the…
Notes From A Previous Court Appearance
One reason why Sheikh Gulzar may have felt reluctant to attend his recent tax appeal hearing in Brighton, might be the short shrift given to his evidence when he last…
No Direction Home
There are, on most nights, between 40 and 50 people sleeping rough within the town of Hastings. That’s according to current data collected by St Leonards mental health and wellbeing…
The Adventures of a Google Local Guide
How ‘Lord’ Brett McLean puts his pals on the map You’re new in town, looking for a good hotel, restaurant, golf course, dog parlour, whatever. Once upon a time, back…
SHEIKH GULZAR: The debt gets personal
Sheikh Abid Gulzar, recent controversial buyer of Hastings Pier, told HIP in an interview which we published last month (Issue 106) that he was spending his own ‘good hard-earned money’.…
Friends Campaign Continues
Ensuring pier’s long term maintenance and enforcement of planning regulations are key objectives. By Emma Harwood The new owner of Hastings pier, Sheikh Abid Gulzar, has erected a wooden hut…
COUNTY MUSIC SERVICE – Funding Issue Escalates
We have reported previously on ESCC’s plans to cut their funding for the East Sussex Music Service hub (ESMS) so that teaching of musical instruments on an individual basis or…
NEEDS MUST – County Council Plans To Reduce All Services to ‘Core Offer’
At the Cabinet meeting of East Sussex County Council (ESCC) held on 17 July, councillors resolved to agree the development of a ‘Core Offer’ in line with a report produced…
Hastings Greenway Group
Hastings Greenway Group continue to put pressure on East Sussex County Council (ESCC) following its diversion of funding intended for walking and cycling projects to bail out two over-budget road…
Duty Of Care
By Rebecca Whippy On 10 July families of special needs and disabled children protested outside County Hall in Lewes with regard to the threatened closure by East Sussex County Council…
Armed Defence
Dave Young admires the current works to boost the Harbour Arm New technology is helping work on the Hastings harbour arm, needed for flood protection, to be completed to plan…
In the Dark
Community group demands answers regarding the sale of Hastings pier. The people of Hastings and St Leonards deserve answers to a long list of questions surrounding the ‘cloudy and often…
NHS CUTS: Getting Local
Hastings and Rother GPs Lose Budgetary Control As NHS Care Commissioning Group Is Required To Balance Books Hastings and Rother Care Commissioning Group (CCG) together with the neighbouring CCG of…
The Night of 15th June: Pier Staff give their Account
by Emma Harwood Former staff have described how the swiftly completed sale of Hastings Pier last month precluded any formal communication from either the administrators or the new owner Sheikh…
Supply and Demand in the NHS: A GP’s View
Local GP Dr Craig Namvar tells HIP what it’s like on the healthcare front line I have practised as a doctor in Hastings and St Leonards for ten years, first…
We Need You, Fishermen Tell Gove
By Dave Young Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, recently made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it visit to the Stade. Accompanied both by local MP and former Home…
Scorched Earth
At 10 am on 1st June, as happens every day of the year, a local volunteer at the Met Office Weather Observations compound in White Rock Gardens took weather measurements…
Small Pockets of Resistance
Hastings Trump protest by April Yasamee Friday 13th July 2018 saw the co-ordinated, mass response to Donald Trump’s visit to the UK, with thousands attending demonstrations in our major cities.…
Easier on the Eye?
Crumbling tower may get orange appeal by Emma Harwood Plans to turn a dilapidated town centre office block into a super-budget hotel have been welcomed by the council’s marketing and tourism…
Funding to be axed for Special Needs Services
Parents have been ‘misled’ by County Council, says support organisation by Emma Harwood East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is failing in its duty of care to hundreds of severely disabled and…
“SHAMBOLIC”
Ten million pound private bid turned down by Emma Harwood The process which resulted in Hastings pier being sold like a “a cheap pub” has been slammed as ‘shambolic’ by a…
“The Dead Wood is Going: This Boat is Going to Sail”
Mr. Sheikh Abid Gulzar discusses the future of Hastings Pier with HIP's Emma Harwood The pier’s flamboyant new owner says he is spending “hard earned money” to ensure its long…
Welfare system ‘forcing people to the brink’, says local advice agency
Survey reveals evidence of ‘systemic dishonesty’ in Universal Credit benefits means testing by Emma Harwood “Draconian” reforms to the welfare system introduced by the Conservative government are failing those who…
Judge a man by the company he keeps
So how did the Sheikh with a string of failed and failing companies get his pier bid approved? “The aim throughout the process was that the heritage asset be sold…