Mapping out Hastings’ greener future

Julia Hilton, secretary of the Hastings Green Party has been writing a regular column for Hastings In Focus since September. Earlier in the year Julia was one of the candidates who stood for election to Hastings Borough Council under the Green Party banner, although the party failed to win any seats they made an impact on […]

Extra money for police is ‘too little too late’ says local Labour

‘Substantial’ recruitment of Police Community Support Officers and Police Officers is on the cards for Sussex in the wake of a government pledge to give police forces across the UK almost £1billion of additional finding. But a spokesman for the Labour party in Hastings told Hastings In Focus it’s was all ‘too little too late.’ […]

It’s up to us to ‘do the right thing’

Last week Sir David Attenborough spoke at the UN Climate Change Summit in Katowice as the representative of the world’s people and warned that climate change is the greatest threat to humanity and could lead to the collapse of civilisations. Four former presidents of the annual UN climate talks warned the ‘world is at a […]

Are the police best choice for youth work cash asks councillor?

Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Katy Bourne has secured £890,616 from the government’s Early Intervention Youth Fund to work with young people and attempt to steer them away from a life of crime. The money is also intended to help create what are described as ‘positive youth projects’ in local communities. However Councillor Godfrey […]

The Police – Over-stretched and overwhelmed by ‘broken’ mental health system

The police cannot be expected to pick up the pieces of a ‘broken mental health system’. That’s the headline finding of a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published earlier this week. Hastings In Focus understands that an increasing amount of local officer’s time is spent dealing with people […]

Delivering the legacy of Robert Tressell

Directed by Mike Leigh and starring Maxine Peake, Peterloo is a gripping film which is shocking and disturbing but throws up several present-day issues writes Jay Kramer. It is possible that many people do not know about The Massacre of Peterloo which took place in the summer of 1819 in what is now known as […]

Action is needed while a window of opportunity still exists

On October 8th the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) warned that  ‘rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’ will be required in order to limit global temperature to 1.5oC above preindustrial levels; and that we have only 12 years in which we can realistically accomplish this. Even half a degree above that […]

Rudd was ‘let down’ by civil servants says report

Hastings MP Amber Rudd was let down by her department’s civil servants in the run-up to her resignation as Home Secretary in April/ Ms Rudd had been under pressure over the ‘Windrush Scandal’ before quitting her cabinet position after ‘inadvertently’ telling MPs that her department did not use targets for deporting illegal immigrants. But an […]