Archives for News - Page 6
We Don’t Want Your Education
Four local parents (three of them former teachers themselves) explain why they home ed their children. Some names have been changed. Rebecca I have many years’ experience of teaching in…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter Don’t Exaggerate Dear HIP Helena Dollimore MP told HIP (Dollimore on Israel and Palestine Action in HIP 284): “Some of those holding placards in support of Palestine Action may…
Flying the Flag – Racism or Patriotism?
The St George’s flag has emerged as a deeply polarising symbol in modern British politics, embodying and influencing debates surrounding national identity, immigration, and race. For many individuals in the…
Pier Friends Call on MP
Members of Friends of Hastings Pier (FOHP), who campaign for a positive future for the landmark structure, met with MP Helena Dollimore a fortnight ago to discuss their concerns that…
NEWS IN BRIEF
Another RIBA Prize for Hastings? The extension of a detached Victorian house in Milward Road on the side of West Hill has been announced as one of six buildings nominated…
MP Questions Nuns’ Exhumations in Hastings
Hastings MP Helena Dollimore has demanded urgent information about the 46 nuns from Holmhurst St. Mary whose remains were exhumed, cremated and then reburied as ashes. Ms Dollimore describes it…
Home Ed Soars in Hastings as Schools Falter
JAMES PRENTICE AND HUGH SULLIVAN School pupils returned to classrooms across Britain last week for the new academic year. In advance, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson issued a national warning to…
Introducing the Hastings People’s Party
HIP recently broke the news that Hastings’ activists had set up a local political party in advance of the launch of the new national party, currently called ‘Your Party’. Members…
News In Brief
Conned out of Housing The number of people being homeless after leaving prison in Sussex, Kent, and Surrey has seen a dramatic rise of 97% according to recent Ministry of…
Gulzar Prosecuted
HUGH SULLIVAN Sheikh Abid Gulzar, the 80-year-old owner of Hastings pier, will face trial by jury in Lewes Crown Court in September 2026 on ten charges of fraud. He and…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
ALL ABOUT EVE This is a representative sample of the letters we have received in response to the ‘All About Eve’ Opinion piece in the last issue. Some have had…
Dollimore on Israel and Palestine Action
KENT BARKER Does Hastings’ MP Helena Dollimore support arms sales to Israel? Our colleagues at the Hastings Online Times (HOT) allege that she does. In an article earlier this month…
Big Brother will be Watching
KENT BARKER Residents of Hastings and East Sussex can expect to be subject to measures that have been condemned as serious erosion of civil liberties. Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner…
Badgers Blamed for Nuns’ Exhumation
KENT BARKER The exhumation of the bodies of 46 nuns from a graveyard at Holmhurst St Mary near the Ridge at Baldslow has been dubbed “utterly disrespectful” and “absolutely disgusting”…
Big Brother Is Watching
Residents of Hastings and across East Sussex could soon be subject to measures that have been condemned as serious erosions of civil liberties. Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne…
Review of Alcohol Licensing
Hastings Borough Council has launched a public consultation on plans to remove the High Street in the Old Town and the area surrounding Cambridge Road in the New Town from…
Call for More Gypsy and Traveller Sites
The South Downs National Park Authority has partnered with local district and borough councils across East Sussex, including Hastings Borough Council, to launch a collaborative call to identify land sites…
Hastings Rebels Find a New Home
ANDY BATSFORD Sometimes the world takes a while to catch up with you. Two years ago, eight of us – all Labour councillors in Hastings – did the unthinkable: we…
New Party, Familiar Faces
JAMES PRENTICE Maya Evans is back in town telling several people she has been hired by Jeremy Corbyn as campaign organiser for his new political party. Dave YoungMaya Evans The…
Parties Clash over Allotment Sell-Off
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN Relations between the Green-led Hastings Borough Council and the local Labour MP are becoming more fractious. Tensions flared up recently when Helena Dollimore accused the Council of being…
Tories Choose Mayoral Candidate
Katy Bourne, the current Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Sussex has been selected as the Conservative Mayoral candidate for Sussex. She is the first candidate officially selected to run…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter Hastings is an antiracist town Dear HIP, Last year the worst race riots in living memory swept the country, targeting refugees, Muslims and black and brown ; On 7…
A Paradox for All to See
ROD WEBB The National March for Palestine in London on 9 August was clearly going to be different from others. Alongside this march, over 500 people had pledged to defy…
Carr Taylor – Wine Pioneers Who Ran Out of Road
HUGH SULLIVAN As previewed in HIP 281, Carr Taylor Wines Limited was put into insolvent liquidation last Monday (4 August). Dave Young The company’s directors David and Linda Carr Taylor…
Old Town United
Paul McLaughlin Hastings Old Town residents and business owners packed the Stables Theatre on Thursday evening (7 August) for an urgent public meeting called by local Labour MP Helena Dollimore…
Labour MP hits out at rise in crime and anti-social behaviour in the Old Town
Local Labour MP Helena Dollimore organised a public meeting at the Stables Theatre on the 7th August to address the recent spike in incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour in…
Play Area Reopened
The foreshore facilities have in the meantime been enhanced by the reopening of the Pelham Beach playground following a major upgrade in its play equipment at a cost of £250,000,…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter MP Unapproachable? Dear HIP St. Leonards Festival has come and gone for another year and what a fantastic day it was! I’d like to express my sincere thanks to…
Funding Boost For Hospice
St Michael’s Hospice has been given a funding boost of £441,000. It is one of 170 hospices across England that will share in a £75 million central government package –…
The Link withAl-Mawasi
HUGH SULLIVAN Al-Mawasi is an area 14 kilometres long and one kilometre wide on the Mediterranean coast, at the southern end of the Gaza strip. Prior to October 2023, it…
‘Safe, Settled and Affordable’ Homes for All
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN Hastings Borough Council has unveiled a new strategic plan aimed at tackling the housing and homelessness crisis engulfing the town. Council Leader Glenn Haffenden was in the Priory…
Conflict Spills onto Local Streets
A female supporter of Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi (HFOAM) was physically attacked outside the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sunday 20 July as she waited to greet the…
Swimmers Warned off Beaches Following Heavy Rain
The Environment Agency (EA) advised members of the public not to swim off any of the beaches at Hastings, St Leonards or Bexhill last week following the heavy rainfall over…
NEWS IN BRIEF
Up on the Roof Hastings Commons will be unveiling a pop-up bar on the rooftop of the seven-storey Observer Building in Cambridge Road for five weeks from Saturday 9 August.…
Council Approves Palestinian Friendship Link – But No Funding
HUGH SULLIVAN After an impassioned debate on 16 July at which a large number of councillors spoke, Hastings Borough Council approved a resolution to recognise and support the friendship link…
War on Waste
Labour and Greens trade complaints over seafront rubbish HUGH SULLIVAN Earlier this month the Labour group of councillors on Hastings Borough Council delivered a formal complaint that the council’s Green…
Ark School in Pupil Exodus
WARWICK MANSELL, founder and chief journalist for the investigative website Education Uncovered, writes exclusively for HIP on what he’s uncovered about Hastings’ controversial Ark Alexandra Academy Teachers at the Ark…
Southern Water Condemned For CEO Pay Rise
The new pay package of £ million for the Chief Executive of Southern Water - almost double his previous salary – has been strongly criticised by Hastings MP Helena Dollimore.…
Inappropriate Development
FIONA MCGARRY went along to the Protestival in West St Leonards to see whether a new form of protest combined with a community festival could have any hope of changing…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter Ark Clampdown Improves Behaviour Re your article Academy Chain Shortlist, I would be interested to know what ‘experiences and concerns’ Helena Dollimore is so worried about in relation to…