The fragile nature of the commercial property market was laid bare yesterday when a number of high-profile, high street names called in administrators. Among those was the Harveys furniture group. While there is no Harveys store in Hastings its subsidiary Bensons for Beds is a tenant of Hastings Borough Council in Bexhill Road. The chain, […]
Why the collapse of one of the UK’s biggest property companies should ring warning bells in Muriel Matters House… Two years ago Hastings Borough Council’s (HBC) rush to invest in commercial property was described as a ‘ticking time bomb of over extended borrowing’. In the two years since, many voices both local and national have […]
Like everyone else in town Hastings Borough Council’s new leader is missing contact with her family; her children and her grandchildren, who she has only been able to see from a distance. Kim Forward became leader of the council in the middle of March and has had a huge amount to deal with in her […]
Later this week Peter Chowney will stand down as leader of Hastings Borough Council, today he launched his new blog A View from the Hill, that’s Maze Hill, where he lives. He says the blog will include politics ‘of course’, and will cover topics ranging from microbiology to chickens and gardening. As a former microbiologist […]
Labour has picked a new leader to take over from Peter Chowney when he steps down from the helm of Hastings Borough Council next month. Current deputy, Kim Forward, was the choice of Labour councillors at a hustings this week, and becomes the first woman to lead the party, in power, locally. Fellow councillor Margi […]
“So far the climate emergency motion feels very much like tokenism from a council determined to carry on with business as usual.” A year after Hastings Borough Council (HBC) declared a climate emergency, the town’s Green Party has condemned the authority for its lack of action. The climate emergency motion was passed unanimously by HBC’s […]
It’s two months since the General Election that saw the Labour Party nationally achieve its worst result since 1935. In Hastings and Rye there had been a strong expectation that Labour could win the seat back from the Conservatives but, just as across the rest of the UK, many traditional supporters abandoned their usual preference to […]
A national homeless crisis is pushing Hastings Borough Council’s (HBC) finances to breaking point, councillors will be told next week. Increasing demand has seen its homelessness budget rocket by £386,000 more than expected. The cost of keeping homeless households in temporary accommodation is now costing the council £2 million a year. And families are spending […]
Hastings has taken a big step closer to bidding for up to £25m from the Government’s new Town Fund by setting up a Town Deal Board. At a public meeting last week delegates from the health, education, business, community and voluntary sectors in the town, as well as officers from East Sussex County Council (ESCC), […]
