Hastings - the place to be

Out  in the Hastings Country Park

Struggling through the council’s budget-setting process it has been easy to forget that outside the confines of the Town Hall there is a whole borough with all the richness and interest that we all treasure. This last weekend I was able to savour just some of what makes Hastings such a special place.


On Saturday morning I attended the Holocaust Memorial Service which the council sponsors. Although part of a national and international commemoration what brought it to life was the link to people and families living here in Hastings.

The theme of this year’s event was ‘Untold Stories’. One story was told for the first time by someone I have known for many years but what he recounted was totally unknown to me. As a Jew his own grandmother was a victim of the Nazi’s persecution. The family had moved around German-speaking Europe trying to find safety. His mother spent much of the war in Holland in hiding from their persecutors. His grandfather had found work in Britain but never saw his wife again.

Then a more contemporary story was told about the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s. The former Bishop of Cyangugu in Rwanda spoke vividly of the horror of mass murder usually carried out by machete. And he is now living in Battle.

As a contrast in the afternoon I wrapped up well for a walk in our great Country Park where perhaps some of those moving personal experiences from the morning could be put at the back of one’s mind. It might have been cold but the views are always stunning – glimpsing the harbour arm as it peeks out beyond the cliffs and glens or just looking out on the empty vastness of the Channel.

I then called in for the second half of Hastings United latest game and unfortunately latest defeat but the banter with staff and supporters is always a winner.

Saturday evening I was in Gurkha Palace being well looked after as usual by Bijay and co.

Sunday I was in our refurbished Falaise gym. Then in the evening I went to the Electric Palace cinema where I think I knew half the audience. The Electric Palace does a brilliant job bringing us films that don’t always get shown on general release in our local mainstream cinemas.

I finished the evening in a High Street pub chatting to Old Town residents and business people who were really positive about the future for Hastings.

When you can enjoy all this in just one weekend who would want to live anywhere else

What's the future for Hastings

On 13th January I attended two events sixty miles apart (not of course at the same time). They were apparently unrelated but both impact directly on our town.

At lunchtime I participated in a delegation from councils in East Sussex to meet with Bob Neil one of the ministers in the Communities and Local Government department. Our brief was to explain first-hand the difficulties the government’s funding deal for councils is causing us.

In the evening I was speaking at the welcome event for Saga. They have taken the whole building at 1 Priory Square and recruited and trained their first 45 employees who had started taking customers' calls that day. The plan is to grow the Hastings workforce to 800.

The spending cuts mean that in 2011/12 the council will receive £2.3m less government grant, and in 2012/13 we’ll be losing a further £1.6m. That’s a 30% reduction over two years one of the worst in the country.

The government has made available a pot of money to support our transition to becoming the smaller council they intend us to become, but this money is only available for two years. By the start of 2013/14 we will need to have reduced our annual expenditure by a £2m.

Over the 3 year period from 2011/12 to 2013/14 we will see our government grant cut in half from £12.7m to £6.6m - a loss of £70 for every person in the borough.

However, I made a pledge to do everything to limit both compulsory redundancies and cuts to the key services local people have said they value the most. I expect compulsory redundancies to be in single figures only but do recognise the pain it can mean for each of those staff members.

As for local residents we held a Big Conversation with them before Xmas to hear what services they value the most and we have taken the results into account when setting the budget.

Residents told us that they the particularly valued those council services that affected their everyday lives – that kept their street clean and safe, that dealt with litter and refuse, tackled derelict and empty buildings and provided free public toilets. They also valued those activities aimed at making Hastings more prosperous and at creating jobs for local people.

And Saga of course does just that. They will become the largest private sector employer in a town with high levels of public sector employment that is clearly vulnerable to the spending cuts.

Despite our serious budget problems there are still positives in Hastings. In addition to Saga, the nationally regarded Jerwood Gallery and the Stade open space will be ready for business by the Autumn. University Centre Hastings phase two will be opening its doors in September taking higher education numbers in the town to 1,000. We have a new further education college and academic results in our schools continue to rise.

I’m terribly disappointed about the cuts to the council, to our staff and to what we can offer the public; but I’m still optimistic for Hastings.

2011 here we come

Celebrating New Year's Eve on the beach at St Leonards

For me Hastings is a great place to celebrate the festive season. Kids, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law etc all on the beach on New Year’s Eve watching our fireworks go up (and other people’s which are usually better!). My family went to the pantomime and agreed it was one of the best we have had.

I hope other Hastings residents had a relaxing time too, But now we begin a new year and what will it mean for our town?

I was born and bred in Hastings. I have seen the setbacks like when the Bathing Pool closed, or when ITT and then Philips left town, or the times Hastings United have been relegated and of course the burning down of the Pier. And I have seen our successes too like the 900th celebration of our most famous year of 1066, the opening of Priory Meadow and of course our nationally funded regeneration programme bringing us the new college and the new health centre, the university and the new office spaces one of which will be filled with 800 Saga jobs.

And there are some real positives ahead in 2011 for Hastings. The nationally regarded Jerwood Gallery and the Stade open space will be ready for business by the Autumn. University Centre Hastings phase two will be opening its doors in September, while our refurbished sports centre and swimming pool will re-open this month. The council will be preparing compulsory purchases of the first six on its list of long-term empty homes and of course we await news on the Pier and remain ready to compulsory purchase it if funding appears likely.

But there is a black cloud hanging over the next 12 months and the next few years with the huge reduction in Hastings Borough Council’s funding from central government – the largest of any council in the country. This will very seriously impact on the services we provide and the jobs we can offer. I am not looking forward to presenting this year’s budget although I will do everything to limit compulsory redundancies and cuts to the key services local people have said they value the most.

Whatever happens I remain proud to represent the unique township of Hastings. The town is most of all its people. There's quirkiness about our town and perhaps edginess. There's a strong cultural scene in the town. Hastings isn’t just for Christmas.