Programme for the year ahead...

The election and all that door-knocking and leafleting is now over. Obviously I am pleased with the increased majority on the council and very proud to have been elected leader again at the council’s annual meeting.

At the meeting I outlined the programme of activity for the next year which is programme was made up of the policies put before the people of the town in the local elections and which gained their overwhelming approval.

Hastings Borough Council will continue to be an interventionist council. What’s different about us is we don’t just believe in administering services, we believe in getting stuck in and trying to change the town and improve it.

So our grotbuster squad will continue to get stuck in to run-down and derelict properties around the town. We will continue our programme of compulsory purchase of long-term empty homes with 27 more being brought before our July cabinet meeting for action. In July we will also be discussing licensing all privately-rented property at least in those parts of the town where the private rented sector is particularly large.

I also announced some new initiatives like the setting up of a confidential tenants hotline so those in living in poor conditions could feel safe to report problems which will the council will then act on, the installation of a solar array on the redundant Pebsham tip to generate electricity and a guarantee of no badger culling on council land.

I promised a new visitor centre for the Country Park, further improvements to the seafront especially the Pier and exciting new plans for White Rock Baths and pledged that everything would be done to ensure our bathing water meets EU standards.

But many people will want to know what can be done to make our town more prosperous and to create more jobs for them and their families. So I announced the appointment by the council of an anti-poverty co-ordinator who will bring together all the activities of different organisations in the town to tackle poverty. 

And in addition the appointment of a cultural co-ordinator whose job is to plan and raise the money for a national cultural festival in 2016 – the 950^th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

Promoting Hastings as a cultural hub brings visitors and income but also is attracting creative businesses and creative individuals to relocate here. But equally we want to promote Hastings as a centre for high-tech engineering based on the number of firms we already have in this sector. And the council has secured European Assisted Area Status which can offer financial support to businesses growing or moving to the town.

I concluded by reminding councillors of the serious financial challenges facing the council with the loss of 50% of its government grant to fund local services. I hope the people of the town will work with the council to ensure those services they cherish the most and that could bring the most  benefit to the town are protected and to let the council know their opinions as we make some difficult decisions.

Cultural Hotspot

“Increasingly over the last few years I have felt that the new “place to be” (which was once the slogan for Brighton and Hove) is now Hastings and St Leonards. I feel that this area is on the cusp of greatness. It has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 to 15 years. The area has some challenges, and if you did choose to live or move your business there, there are some social problems that are still part and parcel of the town. It is a very mixed community, which is one reason I like it so much.” So says Andy Winter, the chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust on his own blog recently.

Last month the Daily Telegraph ran an article about a young couple, Leida and Will, who had bought an old converted pub near Hastings town centre. “As with so much of Hastings, the street is changing, and bit by bit other properties are being done up,” the article read. The couple had moved from Brighton and the transition there happened very fast. Leida said:”Suddenly there were no more empty buildings – it had all been done. I was constantly saying things like, ‘Brighton used to be so this or so that’.” What will she do if Hastings similarly really goes on the up? “What will I do? I’ll lap it up,” she told the paper.

As we know Hastings is the most musically sophisticated town in the country. More than 94,000 people across the country answered questions on their musical background and musical habits in a study carried out by researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London and BBC Lab UK. Interestingly the report was published the very week of our own Fat Tuesday programme and of the Hastings International Piano Competition final.

And if that wasn’t enough work on restoring our Pier is very visibly progressing well; the nationally renowned Jerwood Gallery has a new Spring exhibition. The university is on track to double its number of students in the town.

There’s even a suggestion that we are the new Shoreditch – the area of east London revived by becoming the home of artists and all sorts of cultural activists. The well-known Culture Trip website carries an article “Why Hastings is the Shoreditch of Sussex and the UK’s new cultural hotspot.” The article comments:  “Hastings is a place for experimentation in a less competitive atmosphere than London (and more specifically the real Shoreditch) but remains a refreshing change from the buzz of London or the blinding colour of Brighton.”

It’s all very flattering but while there’s much that’s new and exciting about Hastings and St Leonards we’re not trying to become somewhere else. We want to continue improving with culture and creativity to the fore while at the same time retaining our own identity.
Where else would you get such a diverse calendar of festivals and events that brings us each May Day the Jack in the Green procession accompanied by the revving engines of 20,000 visiting bikers.

And a bet you can’t eat the best fish and chips in the country in Shoreditch!

Getting back on track

Commuters and local businesses are getting increasingly frustrated and angered by the delay to fixing the landslip on the Hastings-Charing Cross line. We have not had a full train service on this line since before Christmas.

Despite promises that it would re-open earlier in the month the landslip at Whatlington has still not been fixed meaning a disrupted train journey with a bus ride between Robertsbridge and Battle. Network Rail have given up setting dates for re-opening the line and are now saying it will be closed “till further notice.”

This is just not acceptable. It is hard enough on local residents who commute to London, or who need to use the line for other trips, business and pleasure, but Easter will be upon us shortly, and we will then be into the summer season. No-one wanting a day trip to the seaside will choose to travel on a rail replacement bus service, and the continued closure of the line could have a potentially serious effect on our visitor economy.

So I’ve written to Network Rail, who are responsible for the rail infrastructure, expressing my concerns. The importance of this route to Hastings is obvious – it is our mainline, our rail lifeline to the capital. Although not as high profile as the Great Western main line, it is nevertheless vital to us. I have said in my letter that I hope that the line has not been given a lower priority just because the Whatlington landslip is not as photogenic or as accessible as the line at Dawlish which was washed away by the sea.

Dawlish has in fact been given a date for re-opening – 4^th April. Unless Network Rail makes urgent progress the Hastings line could be closed longer than that.

I must stress that I am not critical of the staff and contractors who continue to work in difficult conditions on the ground trying to repair the line. My criticism is of the lack of maintenance and planning which continues to give us timetables for the line's reopening which are then broken.

 I have sent a copy of my letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, as if necessary the Department of Transport should be approached to help fund the necessary re pair work. The prime minister said money would be no object to deal with the aftermath of flooding and  the weather has caused just as much damage to our rail links.

For a main line to be closed indefinitely with no firm date set for its reopening is just not good enough. Our town, our residents and our visitors deserve better. And I will keep pressing Network Rail to fix it until further notice

Budget

Council Leader Jeremy Birch talking about the budget

The council set its 2014-15 budget on 26^th February. The headlines are: no increase in the borough council’s element of the council tax, no increase in council car park charges and no job losses as a result of the budget.

The backdrop to the budget is that Hastings Borough Council is receiving the biggest cut in government grant of any council in the South East – 50% since 2010. Government grant amounts to more than half of the council’s net income.

This can only mean the council becoming a smaller authority, employing less staff and providing fewer services to local people over the next few years.

But we have prepared as best we can for this. By building up our reserves we are now able to release some of that money to support the budget for next year and for the next couple of years to help smooth our downward path to a smaller council.

However, some new spending has still been made possible in the new budget. The council will be spending £20,000 a year on co-ordinating a town-wide anti-poverty action plan involving a number of public bodies. 

There will also be a one-off sum of £300,000 for a national cultural festival to celebrate the 950^th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 2016.

The council also agreed its capital investment programme which amounts to £3 million for 2014-15. This includes nearly £1 million on disabled facilities grants to adapt the homes of residents who need it, £250,000 for Hastings Pier, £250,000 as part of a lottery bid to improve Hastings Castle as a visitor attraction and £100,000 to improve facilities for mourners at the crematorium.

As the freeholder of Priory Meadow the council is putting £200,000 into a £2 million facelift and improvement package which of course will see H&M moving in at the end of March.

I believe we are an effective and efficient council and the government agrees as they gave us the maximum £250,000 efficiency bonus. Now this budget is approved we are moving on to efficiency reviews of council services to see how we can do still better and be still more cost-effective in this climate of serious grant reductions.

Parking in Hastings

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Is there such a thing as free parking? Well of course there is. In Silverhill, Ore Village or Central St Leonards where the shops are very much local small businesses. But in every town of our size the main town centre and tourist areas are charged.

If the town centre wasn’t charged and controlled the parking spaces would be filled all day by people who work in the town centre or by commuters – there would be no room for shoppers or visitors. It would be the worst possible result for shops big and small.

The whole theory of parking is to encourage drivers to come to the town centre to combine a number of activities in the same visit, rather than keep coming back, costing them petrol for each task. So you come to town to go to the bank, look round the shops, visit the hair dresser and have a coffee all in one trip and park in an off-street car park for a couple of hours to do it all.

If you really need to nip to town for a single activity, like picking up a prescription or paying in a cheque, and want to park for 20 or 30 minutes then you park on the streets and pay at the meters. These meters are the responsibility of East Sussex County Council.

So what about the idea of Hastings Borough Council making the first 30 minutes free in its car parks. I’m not sure it would help the really short-term parker. The walk from a car park back and forth to the chemist might take half the 30 minutes; if you had to queue when you got there you’d be in trouble.

Car parks are for longer staying visitors and businesses want people to stay longer. Cafes don’t want you in town for half an hour, they want you to relax. The shopping centre doesn’t want you for half an hour they want you to wander around the shops. And 30 minutes would definitely not be enough time for parking in a car park, walking to the hairdressers and then having the appointment. It wouldn’t be long enough to enjoy the ice rink as 11,000 people did at Xmas.

The best thing for business prosperity is that we park and then stay in the town centre for longer.

So is the free 30 minutes merely a way round getting cheaper car park charges? If so how do Hastings charges compare to our neighbours. For one hour’s parking Hastings Borough Council’s town centre car parks are 10p more expensive than Eastbourne’s Arndale Centre; but for two hours 20p cheaper.

Of course the truth is no-one pays for a three litres of petrol to drive to Eastbourne because the car park charges might be cheaper.

The reason we shop locally or go elsewhere is the quality of what is on offer. We are just about to see a £2 million refurbishment of Priory Meadow including the arrival of a large new, nationally popular store trading on two floors. Hastings town centre has less empty shops than the national average and the number of people going into our shopping centre is holding up well against other places.

So what’s the financial impact of the free 30 minutes idea? If it was introduced in Hastings Borough Council’s car parks the loss of income would be equivalent to a 2% rise in the council tax - so I suppose you could take your choice.

For the coming financial year the council is freezing the council tax and freezing its car park charges. In the financial climate when we have lost 50% of our government grant to run the town that is about the best any of us could expect.