On Friday afternoon the result of years of what is being described as ‘financial mismanagement’ will be laid bare before members of Hastings Borough Council’s (HBC) ruling Labour cabinet at an emergency meeting to discuss the authority’s looming financial crisis as it faces having to make multi-million pound savings. HBC is broke and unless it […]
Scheme depends on council’s cut of business rates to break even Here are the first images of how the new publicly funded restaurant to be built in Harold Place might look. Hastings Borough Council’s (HBC) cabinet recommended on Monday night that full council be given the chance to discuss the plan for HBC to borrow […]
The ‘closed ranks’ of Hastings Labour Party are behaving more like Roman Emperors than left-wing collaborators trying to solve issues which directly affect people’s dignity according to veteran campaigner Adam Wide. Mr Wide was responding to the news that Hastings Mayor James Bacon has had his invitation to this weekend’s Hastings Pride event withdrawn and […]
Robust measures will be used against the owners of the Battle Road arches in a bid to recover the £300,000 that Hastings Borough Council (HBC) has earmarked to spend on their demolition. Work began in May to demolish what had been classified as a dangerous structure. On Friday HBC told Hastings In Focus: “The demolition […]
More than a year and a half after it ended Hastings Borough Council (HBC) has still not completed the audit for the financial year 2019/20 it was revealed during this week’s quarterly audit committee meeting. Audits for 2020/21 also remain uncompleted. Peter Grace, HBC’s Assistant Director of Financial Services and Revenues, said difficulties caused by […]
It has been a long and hard fought campaign by the sizeable number of local people opposed to council plans that would see the building of more than 150 new homes on the old bathing pool site in West St Leonards. Hastings Borough Council’s failure to listen to local people, on this and other issues, […]
Since he started writing for Hastings In Focus back in 2019 Tom McCann has never been afraid to court controversy. As a young man trying to make his way in the world and facing an ever more ‘hostile’ local housing market he wonders if Hastings Borough Councillors have their priorities the right way round? With […]
Hastings is set to receive £229,000 in Welcome Back Funding to support the town’s pandemic recovery and encourage people back safely. It’s Hastings’ share of the government’s £56 million Welcome Back Fund, which has been provided by the European Regional Development Fund. It will allow local authorities to put in place measures to create and promote a safe […]
Last week’s meeting of Hastings Borough Council saw the debate continue over the future of the Harrow Lane playing fields. Gifted to the town for recreational use, HBC now wants to sell them off for housing development. The Conservative opposition wants to retain the playing fields as they, are describing them as ‘the last green […]
