“If you need help and support it is here for you,” was the message from the borough council’s new leader on Friday when she released the first of what will be a weekly series of videos.

Councillor Kim Forward, who succeeded Peter Chowney as leader of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) in March spoke about the Community Hub that HBC set up to provide vulnerable people with key services like food delivery and prescription collection. It’s been a month since the hub was established and HBC has been working with voluntary organisations, the NHS and East Sussex County Council, she explained.

Ms Forward told viewers that the town was home to many businesses that were instrumental in leading the fight against Covid-19, however, many others were struggling. She said the council had so far processed 1,300 applications for financial support from small companies and had distributed more the £15m to eligible businesses in Hastings and St Leonards.

“We are working hard to find and contact business that can apply but haven’t done so yet,” she says.

She advised people to check HBC’s website (https://www.hastings.gov.uk/) for the latest information on services that are available and how to access them and explained that it had been ‘a challenge’ to keep services running but most staff were now working from home. Even so the council has had to suspend some services and finding ‘different ways’ to do others.

“Our website is a really good place to find out all the latest information about how our services are running,” she says.