Gunshots Lead to Crash Injuries

Four people were injured when their car crashed in Hastings during a police pursuit. The incident began after gunshots were reported in Sidley Green, Bexhill.

A black Nissan was chased by police before it was involved in a crash nearly eight miles away in Ivyhouse Lane, North Hastings.

The four people in the car sustained injuries, with one airlifted to hospital, where they were in a serious condition. Sussex Police said the driver of the vehicle, a 26-year-old man of no fixed address, was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. The three passengers, a 21-year-old man from Bexhill, a 23-year-old man from Bexhill, and a 36-year-old man from St Leonards, were arrested on suspicion of affray. Later three other people were arrested, two on firearms offences and one on suspicion of assisting an offender.

People and Dog Rescued

Coastguards and lifeboats were called out after a group of four people and their dog were cut off and trapped by the tide beneath cliffs on the stretch of shore between Fairlight and Rock‑A‑Nore in Hastings.

The group, which was successfully helped to safety, was “wet, cold and tired,” according to their rescuers.

HM Coastguard said that teams from Hastings, Bexhill and Rye Bay, along with Hastings RNLI Lifeboat and Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat, were involved in the rescue operation.

Coastguard Cuts Condemned

Thousands of volunteer coastguards will no longer be paid for emergency call-outs according to the GMB Union. It follows what they describe as a ‘reprehensible’ move by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

The 3,500 volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers (CROs) who carry out rescues around the British coast including Sussex, have always been given hourly remuneration for attending incidents and training exercises.  But a Court of Appeal case recently upheld a judgement classifying even volunteers as ‘workers’ when carrying out paid duties. As a result, the MCA removed the payments. A GMB official, Lynsay Mackay, said: “When someone is lost, injured or in danger on our coastline, nobody asks whether the person coming to help is a volunteer or a worker. If we want a strong, resilient Coastguard for the future, we must make sure that those who step forward are supported, not penalised.”

Arrests in Drugs Bust

A National Crime Agency (NCA) drugs investigation has led to the arrest of five people near Eastbourne Marina.

Witnesses reported a large number of officers boarding a boat at Sovereign Harbour. An NCA spokesperson said: “Five suspects are in custody, the arrests having been made on 8 June near Eastbourne Marina. The investigation is ongoing, and more details will be released in due course.”

Combating Modern Slavery

The charity Crimestoppers is launching a new campaign across Sussex urging people to spot signs of modern slavery and organised immigration crime, and to report concerns anonymously.

The campaign, with the message ‘Spot the signs. Stop the exploitation,’ shows how crime gangs operate in coastal areas, transport routes and local communities, putting vulnerable people at risk.

Annabelle Goodenough, South Central East Regional Manager of Crimestoppers, said: “Organised immigration crime and modern slavery are happening in communities across Sussex, often hidden in plain sight. The reality is that people are being exploited, moved and controlled by criminals who prioritise profit over human life.”

People are asked to report suspicious activities including small boats or equipment moved in secrecy, groups who appear frightened, lost or disoriented, passengers quickly moved into vehicles with few belongings, lorries parked in isolated or unusual locations, and drivers acting nervously or blocking access.

Lifeboat Crew Raise Crazy Money

Members of Hastings RNLI lifeboat crew have raised £190 for FSN, a Hastings-based charity that provides services and projects for children and young people affected by poverty, disadvantage, neglect and abuse.

Earlier in the month, boat and shore crew members, shop volunteers, guides and fundraisers paid to play crazy golf on Hastings’ famous seafront courses, with the proceeds all going to FSN. The competition was won by volunteer boat crew member Sam Glassett, with a score of 39.

Hastings lifeboat management group chair Paul Freathy, who also competed, said: “The annual crazy golf competition has become quite an event. It brings all the different areas of the lifeboat family in Hastings together, so it is a great team-building exercise. And we always choose a local charity to benefit. We are all members of the local community, and of course a charity ourselves, so we know how important the work of FSN is, and the value of public support.”

Crazy Golf King De-throned

A new champion has been crowned at the recent World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings. It means that previous title holder Mark ‘The Force’ Chapman failed in his bid to be the first person ever to win the title six times in a row.

The new supremo, Rocky Bullin, beat Chapman by just one shot after getting a hole in one in the final round. Simon Tompkins, the tournament organiser from Hastings Adventure Golf, said it was nice to have a different champion. “I think Marc will definitely be back next year because I think he’s definitely got the sixth in him, but this year it’s Rocky’s year,” he told the BBC. More than 250 people competed in what has become one of Hastings’ most iconic sporting events.

Big Brother Watch

The Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne has welcomed the ‘positive impact’ of new AI road safety cameras being trialled in Sussex, ‘helping us tackle some of the most dangerous behaviours on our roads’.

In a period of just four weeks, the cameras are reported to have detected more than 2,200 offences at a single location – including 459 drivers using a mobile phone and 1,823 not wearing a seatbelt.

These are not minor issues, says Ms Bourne. “Failing to wear a seatbelt or using a mobile phone while driving are among the leading causes of serious injury and fatal collisions, and they put lives at risk every single day. This technology supports officers by identifying potential offences quickly and accurately, allowing police to focus their time where it matters most. Importantly, every image is reviewed by a person before any action is taken. While I welcome the use of innovative tools to strengthen enforcement, what really matters is changing behaviour,” she says. “Encouragingly, offences reduced week by week during the trial as awareness grew – showing that education and visibility do make a difference.”

Get Hastings Reading Our passion for words goes viral

By Stephen Ratcliffe

Culture Shift, a key partner in the Get Hastings Reading campaign, has launched a series of short films to encourage young people to take up the art of creative writing. The films feature five local creative professionals.

A key aim of the Get Hastings Reading campaign is to share a passion for words and language.  With the help of journalists, scriptwriters and songwriters, the campaign was running a series of Word Café events in secondary schools across Hastings to showcase how words and language lie at the heart of their jobs.  This initiative was thwarted by Covid-19 restrictions.  Undaunted, the campaign decided to go viral. 

The five local professionals featured in the films are Ed Boxall, Chrissy Harmar-Brown, Andy Willard, Siddy Bennett and John Knowles, and their videos cover creative activities such as Graphic Design, Cartooning, Graphic Novels, Illustration and Script writing. Each video is highly interactive, and viewers are encouraged to share their work. 

Each artist has produced five short videos which have been shared with local secondary schools and are also freely available on Culture Shift’s YouTube channel. All 25 videos can be viewed at: 

www.youtube.com/channel/UCVBQ1bN-C-XMMciytzspJXw
(Search Culture Shift Sound Bites)

Speaking about the project, Ed Boxall said: “I have really enjoyed the chance to find ways for young people to be creative with words and images.  The films are a brilliant toolkit that young people can go back to again and again, providing an amazing resource that empowers and enables them to be creative and have fun with words in a fantastic range of art forms.   The films will definitely help people to enjoy words and develop their literacy – but the best thing is none of the projects offered feel like work at all!”

Chrissy Harmar-Brown said: “I had no idea how the film of me suggesting some scriptwriting exercises would work and I was surprised and delighted by the results. The students responded with imagination and flair, creating compelling characters and coming up with wonderful plot ideas which I hope they develop. It’s always a joy when young writers are able to generate their own ideas.”

Catherine Orbach, Director at Culture Shift said: “The videos were a great way to reach out to young people during the lockdown. As films they are resources which will be there for years to come and we hope many more young people will access them. We are really grateful to the professionals who made this possible and were prepared to have a go at making films themselves – often for the first time.”

The SoundBite videos are part of the Read Your Way initiative, which is being led by Education Futures Trust, working in partnership with the NSMC, FSN, Hastings Storytelling Festival, Culture Shift and 18 Hours.  Read Your Way is funded by the Hastings Opportunity Area and aims to improve standards of literacy amongst children and young people in the town.

• www.educationfuturestrust.org/get-hastings-reading
www.facebook.com/ReadYourWayHastings

“Books to the ceiling, books to the sky. My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time
I read them.” – ARNOLD LOBEL

Hastings-based support charity Education Futures Trust (EFT) is delighted to announce that it has been appointed to lead the Get Hastings Reading campaign in 2020 following an award from the Hastings Opportunity Area (HOA).

EFT will continue the campaign begun last year by the National Literacy Trust who ran the campaign during 2018-2019 and looks forward to working with a consortium of partners over the coming year including Culture Shift, FSN, 18 Hours, Hastings Storytelling Festival and the National Social Marketing Centre.

Carole Dixon, EFT’s CEO, commented: “This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference in the town. The plan of the campaign is to embed reading spaces in our local community venues and make books accessible to all.”

The aim of Get Hastings Reading is to improve literacy standards within the town and inspire children to read for pleasure, with exciting initiatives planned for the year ahead.  EFT and partners will promote a number of ways in which children and young people can freely access books, take part in reading events, and hear from authors and storytellers in an exciting yearlong campaign to fill Hastings with books!

Look out for the Get Hastings Reading book cases, specially designed by local young people for this project, as they pop up at a variety of venues across town.  Children will be encouraged to help themselves to a book to keep or read and pass on, as they develop a life-long love of reading. The first bookshelf was opened at Our Café @Ore, attached to the Ore Community Centre, on 5th October during the Fun Palace event.  

Children can also look out for the huge ‘Talking Heads’ which will be coming to Hollington in December and take part in a young persons’ Word Café. EFT is working towards a target to give 10,000 books away during the Get Hastings Reading campaign and is actively seeking reading ambassadors to help spread the word. In addition, EFT would like to hear from anyone that has good quality books they would like to donate, and also any local businesses that could volunteer as drop-off points for the books, which will be collected and distributed to the young people in Hastings and St Leonards.

• For more information, please contact George Kane on 01424 722241 or email: office@educationfuturestrust.org 

Get Hastings Reading partners, Education Futures Trust: www.educationfuturestrust.org/get-hastings-reading