Hastings is expected to rejoin the 1066 Country marketing partnership in the near future. Deputy Council leader Julia Hilton told HIP that they had been in discussions with the group “over the past few weeks” over rejoining “in particular for their excellent work promoting the area to the overseas market.”

The move follows pressure from the town’s MP and Labour members of the council to rejoin the local tourism board which promotes the 378 square miles of East Sussex from Pevensey Bay to Camber Sands and back to the Kent border.

In February 2023 the council, then controlled by Labour, withdrew its support for 1066 Country saying the £50,000 a year cost was unaffordable. Councillor Andy Batsford said at the time: “Hastings is a really strong brand in its own right and we feel we can go it alone and actually push hard on the new businesses, the new investment, the new cultural buzz that is happening in the town.”

However, Mr Batsford along with council leader Paul Barnett and four other members resigned from the Labour Party later that year to sit as independents. Earlier this month the three remaining Labour councillors called for the council to rejoin the tourism and marketing initiative. Councillor Billie Barnes tabled a motion at full council supporting the idea, saying ‘“The Bayeux Tapestry returning to Britain represents an exceptional, once-in- a-generation opportunity for the area. It is vital to put on a united effort as ‘one 1066 Country’ to maximise regional tourism opportunities and profile”.

1066 Country Marketing describes itself as a ‘thriving public and private sector partnership, bringing together Rother District Council, Wealden District Council, Tourism South East, National Trust and English Heritage alongside scores of private businesses.’

Local MP Helena Dollimore supported the call for Hastings to rejoin, saying many local businesses who rely on tourism “want Hastings to return to the 1066 Country Tourism partnership. … with Hastings Council receiving a record funding settlement from the Labour Government this year, now is the time to return to this important partnership and I hope councillors will support this.”

Cllr Julia Hilton remained tight-lipped about the cost of rejoining. “I won’t comment on the financial contribution we will be making for that work as that is still being finalised,” she told HIP. As a result of the decision, she said: “The motion that the Labour group was intending to bring has therefore been rejected as the work to rejoin is already in progress.”

John Bownas, business improvement manager for the Love Hastings marketing group said he was positive “the majority of leisure and tourism businesses – in fact probably all businesses in the borough – will wholeheartedly welcome the call to reinstate Hastings’ funding for 1066 Country Marketing”.

Mr Bownas pointed out that the decision to withhold the £50,000 contribution to the partnership and replace it with a local budget of £15,000 meant Hastings had ‘lost a seat at the table where strategic tourism marketing happens. This has left our local businesses immensely frustrated, feeling that their individual membership fees are perhaps being spent to the benefit of other towns in the wider region.’ He estimated the regional visitor economy to be worth in the region of £665 million which means that the overall saving to the council of £35,000 was disproportionate as the potential return on investment is enormous. Tourists don’t plan their holidays around local authority borders, he said: “When visitors come to the South East, they see Hastings, Battle, and Rye as one interconnected destination. Trying to market Hastings in a hyper-local silo not only duplicates administrative effort, but it actively confuses consumers and forces our attractions to compete rather than collaborate.”

2023 Coastal Currents is upon us and this year we have done it entirely without Arts Council funding! First, then, thanks must go out to our biggest supporters: Love Hastings, blackShed Gallery, East Sussex College, and all the other lovely advertisers and Open Studios participants who have helped make this happen.

Tina Morris, our Director, who first got involved way back in 2011 and has now kept the Festival afloat since Hastings Council funding ended in 2017, says:

“Truly a festival of the town in 2023, we are so thankful to still be here through pure community support. But this is unsustainable, so we also know we have to look at other ways to keep this festival alive, including making donations to our crucial crowdfunder at gofundme.com/coastal-currents-audiotrope-2023. We want to see this festival return year after year as it is vital to supporting the local creative economy. I will keep putting in my energy and passion but you all need to as well!”

Tina Morris, Co-Chair of 1066 Music City (for her creation of community music project Audiotrope) alongside Hannah Deeble from Fat Tuesday, incorporated all of these elements into the Opening Party for the Festival this year. This free celebration of music and art welcomed everyone last Friday. This was a great chance to hear some fantastic local live music as well as doing some networking, and the back room of The Pig was heaving! The line-up included Lucas the Peaceful Poet, Message from the Ravens, Chimer (acoustic), Reshad & Friends, Bad Pedestrian, Fluorescent and, just back from supporting Greentea Peng, we have Kid Cruise headlining.

An unmissable show is the launch of Folde at the Observer Building on Cambridge Road, an exhibition showing contemporary works exploring clay and curated by Rowan Corkill and including a host of incredible local artists including Martin Brockman, Rosalind Farem, Carla Wright and more. This launches on Friday 8 September from 6pm, and the show itself runs from 7 – 11 September, so get it in your diary quick.

Open Studios was last weekend and this weekend (9-10 September) across the region. We have an interactive map on our website at coastalcurrents.org.uk or you can pick up one of our aubergine and neon brochures found in most galleries and independent shops. Support local by visiting the studios, buying a piece, commissioning something you’ve always wanted or even just engaging with the artist themselves. Our creative economy needs you and Coastal Currents exists to celebrate this unique coast’s creativity!

Watch out for other street level interventions especially the Coastal Currents supported ESRA exhibition which will appear on Hastings streets in the coming weeks. ESRA does valuable work locally, supporting recovering from addiction and more can be seen here esrauk.org Another pick of the festival is a sound installation by artists Pat Jamieson and Carol Laidler, found in a seafront shelter on De La Warr Parade throughout the Festival from 10am – 6pm.

There are events and exhibitions in the brochure, right through to mid October, so go grab yourself a copy or download one on our homepage. 

coastalcurrents.org.uk

CREDIT: Kevin Boorman/HBC

Beneath a blue sky that emptied of clouds for almost precisely the hour’s length of the religious service, the park audience stood or sat in the sun, the majority motionless and outwardly emotionless, as all the pomp, ceremony and musical crescendos of 70 miles away were paraded in front of them in zoom-lens close-up and audio hi-fi.

The mayor James Bacon, leader of the council Paul Barnett and other local dignitaries were among the crowd but kept a low profile. No speeches or other interventions were made. The only moment of active community engagement came when, at the end of the service, the televised choir and brass ensemble struck up a rendering of
God Save The King. Virtually the whole audience stood up in recognition of…well, whatever the new monarch may signify to each of them. 

Over the previous week, civic roles were performed in the manner expected of the officers concerned. On Friday 9 September Cllr Bacon sent condolences “on behalf of the people of Hastings” to Buckingham Palace and the Royal Family, and laid a wreath at the war memorial in Alexandra Park to join other floral tributes collected there. Flags at Hastings Town Hall in Queen’s Road and at the borough council offices at Muriel Matters House were lowered to half-mast; they were raised temporarily on Sunday 11 to mark the proclamation of King Charles III’s accession to the throne, which was read out that afternoon by Cllr Bacon to a small gathering at Queen Square; then they were lowered again until after the funeral.

At 8pm on Sunday 18 Septemeber dignitaries including the mayor and deputy mayor Cllr Margi O’Callaghan stood for a National Minute of Silence for Reflection outside the Town Hall.

Plans for a surveillance system to be set up in the streets of Central St Leonards as part of a ‘Safer Streets’ project funded by the Home Office are at risk of being withdrawn after complaints that there has been insufficient public consultation and that the chosen system could be over-intrusive.

Funding totalling over £500,000 is on offer to help local residents and businesses protect their premises as well as to support a dedicated grouping, the Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP). The project team combines representatives of Hastings Borough Council, the police, local residents, the BCRP and the existing business forum Love Hastings under the banner of ‘Safer St Leonards’. The stated aim is to help both homes and shops “to cut down on burglary and theft through improved security measures and better communication between neighbours and the police”. 

John Bownas, manager of Love Hastings and a key mover in the BCRP, says that it had undertaken a preliminary survey of St Leonards businesses in the autumn and found that 70% approved in principle the setting up of the surveillance system, as well as other measures such as improved street lighting. Alongside this, the community group Heart of Hastings (HoH) was commissioned by the project team to undertake a wider conversation with local people – what they call “community organising… going to people, listening to them, trying to connect people in the community to be active and take action on what matters to them”. 

But time was limited, and this work did not include specific reference to any surveillance system. The Home Office funding offer is, at least nominally, conditional on being spent during the current financial year, i.e. by the end of this month.

CCTV intrusion

Then came the second and third lockdowns. HoH could not fulfil their preferred methods of door-knocking and face-to-face interviews, but say they became aware of issues raised about CCTV intrusion. The system that has been chosen offers 24-hour surveillance through 37 high-definition digital video cameras and security lighting in both commercial and residential areas. There were concerns expressed that it could be applied to sinister purposes through the application of facial recognition technology. The proposed supplier, Hikvision, is a Chinese company whose camera systems have been installed in countries where there are human rights abuses, and are alleged to be instrumental in aiding them, though Mr Bownas says that they are “commonplace” on high streets in the UK.

 “The critical thing here is that all the talk of facial recognition isn’t true”, he says. “There has been a lot of scaremongering about this coming from people who frankly should know better, and it’s put the whole project at risk as a result… which would be a tremendous shame.” Hikvision is a worldwide supplier, he argues, no more responsible for any misuse of its technology than are, say, Dell Computers.

Automatic identification

He also denies that there’s any essential difference between a system operated by humans and one set up to identify people automatically.

“In the former case there’s a reliance on personal knowledge, in the latter on a system database. Both depend on cameras producing high quality images that are accurate and don’t produce false alerts, whether we’re trying to keep tabs on a suspected troublemaker or to trace a lost child.

“That said,” he continued, “we are currently reviewing whether we can obtain a similarly high-quality system at an equivalent price from any manufacturer whose activities have not been called into question in this manner.”

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is now asking the Home Office to extend the funding deadline. In the meantime no order for the system has been confirmed – and won’t be, says Mr Bownas, “until consultation has happened”.

The project team has issued an official statement: “Pending clarity about available funds, we’ll seek more views from the public, and will respond to the views already raised.’ HoH are hoping that their consultation process can be continued throughout this month.

• Consultation responses can now be expressed on surveymonkey.co.uk/rsafer-st-leonards

Following on from the successful Love Hastings, Love Yourself event held in Hastings (October 2016) to celebrate World Mental Health Day, Hastings Youth Council has submitted a petition to Amber Rudd Home Secretary and MP for Hastings and Rye.

The Youth Council is petitioning Government to appoint a mental health minister to overlook and monitor mental health and ensure that the Clinical Commissioning Group and other organisations respond to the growing mental health crisis in Britain.

They presented the petition with over 280 signatures to Amber Rudd MP on Friday 09 December at her local constituency office in St Leonards.

“Mental health is very important to the young people in Hastings and this is why it’s been a campaign of ours” said Huda Caglayan chair Hastings Youth Council.

“We need more investment and commitment to tackling mental health issues and it’s hoped our petition may lead to this” she added.

“The Youth Council is committed to highlighting mental health issues in young people locally and we fully support them in their endeavours” said Cllr Kim Forward, the council’s lead member for Communities.