While the council says the town is ‘cautiously ready for visitors’ MP Sally-Ann Hart has repeated her call for us to play a part in ‘turbo-charging’ the local economy and get it ‘firing on all cylinders’. Mrs Hart has repeated her message from last week saying: “…now is the time for us all to play […]
John Bownas is the Manager of Love Hastings the name that’s been given to Hastings Business Improvement District (BID). John though tends to introduce himself as simply the ‘town centre manager’, he finds people understand that more easily as many just don’t know what BIDs are. In a nutshell, as he frequently has to explain: […]
Reports suggest that across the UK more than 30,000 pubs, bars and restaurants could remain permanently closed because the coronavirus shutdown has sent a wrecking ball through the nation’s hospitality trade. Meanwhile restaurant chains with branches in Hastings and St Leonards, including Bella Italia, have either already called in administrators or are expected to do […]
Last autumn Hastings Borough Council (HBC) said it was just weeks away from signing a deal that would have paved the way for a high density housing development on the site of the old bathing pool in West St Leonards – more than six months on that deal has still not been signed. ‘Hastings Council […]
Think Local buy local Encouraging local people to buy from local businesses is the prime objective of a group of businessmen who are urging people to ’think local, buy local’. Initially launched by Roy Jupp a number other local shops and businesses have quickly joined. Called Think Local Buy Local – Hastings and Rother Small Business Support those […]
Work on the new £660,000 visitor centre for Hastings Country Park has ground to a halt during the current Covid-19 ‘lockdown’. It had originally been hoped the new centre might have opened during this year but that now looks unlikely. Before work stopped the building has reached the point where the walls are up, the […]
Unless central government gives councils more cash then local government will not be viable. That’s the view of Peter Chowney, who will step down as leader of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) in March after five years in the job. One local Labour Party member told Hastings In Focus this week: “Peter should be remembered as […]
Every adult in Hastings owes the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) almost £1,000. Tonight members of Hastings Borough Council’s (HBC) cabinet will hear that the council’s debt to the PWLB has topped £65m and is set to rise even further if plans the council has in the pipeline for further property acquisition and development go […]
Plans for development of the Harold Place site where the toilets once stood is an example of “local government at its worst” according to Rob Lee who leads the opposition Conservative group on Hastings Borough Council (HBC). Tonight councillors are set to approve a plan that would see HBC borrow the cash required to convert […]
