Jeremy

 

Following the sad death of Hastings Borough Council’s leader Cllr Jeremy Birch, a flag bearing the Hastings coat of arms is being flown from Hastings town hall as a mark of respect. A book of condolence has also been opened, in the community contact centre in Hastings town hall. And one minutes silence will be held during the election count at Horntye Park tonight.

The deputy leader of Hastings Borough Council, Cllr Peter Chowney, has paid tribute to Cllr Jeremy Birch: - “It was with enormous sadness that I learnt of the death of Jeremy Birch, leader of Hastings Council, yesterday afternoon. It was sudden and unexpected, and my thoughts are with his partner Louise and his family at this terrible time.

“Jeremy had been leader of Hastings Council for fifteen years - I'd been his deputy for just two years. His dedication to Hastings was unquestionable, having been born and bred here (something he occasionally reminded me of, me being a ‘DFL’ of just 18 years residency), and had devoted his life to the regeneration of our borough, and to making Hastings and St Leonards a better place. He was well known and respected not just in East Sussex, but throughout the region, and was instrumental in getting a big share of whatever regional and national resources were on offer, largely down to his persuasive intellect, absolute dedication, and unswerving devotion to the place he was born in.

“In public, he was an astonishing orator, and showed all the qualities a leader should. In private, he was witty and entertaining, with a succinct and precise sense of humour that I certainly appreciated. It's so hard to realise that I'm not going to experience that again: the witticisms, the incisive explanations, and yes, the arguments - but always constructive ones.

“But as well as the council leader, he was most importantly a personal friend and comrade. I can't believe he's gone, and it makes me so sad to be writing this. So, goodbye Jeremy - you were a worthy son of Hastings, a tireless fighter for what was right and good, and a true socialist. We'll never forget you.”

 

And the Mayor of Hastings, Cllr Bruce Dowling, added: - “I have known Jeremy as much as a friend as a fellow councillor, and am personally devastated at his passing. Like me he was Hastings born and bred, and proud of it. And he was passionate about this town.

 

“I know tributes have already been paid from members of all political parties; everyone recognised that what he did he did for the best of Hastings.

 

“He was larger than life in every respect, and our meetings, Hastings Borough Council, and Hastings the town, will not be the same. We have lost a real friend.”

 

Original Press Statement Issued by Hastings Borough Council

We were very sad indeed to learn of the death of the Leader of Hastings Borough Council, Councillor Jeremy Birch earlier today. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.

His partner, Louise has given the following statement  'It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Jeremy Birch.'

'The family would like to express their thanks to the critical care unit at the conquest hospital. We want it to be noted that the staff at the Conquest have been committed, compassionate and professional. We do not think we could have had a better service anywhere else. '

Note to Editors:- No further statements will be made and we would very much appreciate if Council Members, Officers and members of his family are not contacted any more in relation to this story.

2015-16 Budget

We have just completed the toughest budget-setting anyone in the council can remember. The full council meeting on 25^th February approved the final budget for 2015-16 including a 1.9% increase in the council tax. With similar rises from the other organisations that levy council tax on local people – fire, police and the county council – the average increase for Hastings households from April will be 1.95%.

The backdrop to this budget has been really challenging. Hastings Borough Council has received a cut of over 50% in its grant from central government to provide services to local people. It is just not possible to continue doing all the things we have done before or would want to do. Just for this budget year 2015-16 we have suffered the largest reduction in what the government calculates as revenue spending power of any council in the south east – 6.4%. With the extra needs of Hastings I believe this is just not fair.

The council has had to find £1 million of savings to balance its budget for 2015/16 and provisionally it has a two-year balanced budget up to 2017. But significant reductions have had to be made. The Old Town museum will close and its collection moved to the main museum off Cambridge Road, support for the Chess Congress and for twinning will be cut, charges for things like parking, chalets and garden waste collection will be rise and there will be a £20,000 cut in support to voluntary organisations.

As part of the two-year budget plan 20 council posts will disappear in 2015/16 and 20 more in the following year.

These have been very difficult decisions but I was pleased just how understanding the organisations we went to speak were to about our budget proposals. They recognised the very unfavourable positon Hastings had been put in. Some decided themselves to write to the government pointing this out.

Yet even in this difficult environment we have been able to find a bit of extra money for key initiatives. These include continuing our work on bathing water quality and preparing plans for the West Marina and White Rock areas. We have also found £50,000 to partly mitigate the impact on the most vulnerable from the government’s cut of £100,000 in the money they give us for discretionary housing payments.

The council’s four-year capital programme grosses £16m. It will see £400,000 spent on building a new Country Park visitor centre ("an ambition for at least 15 years" according to the Friends of the Country Park), £700,000 building a new council-owned factory, £800,000 renovating the White Rock Baths building, £160,000 on Bottle Alley and £5m on a second phase of the Coastal Space project in St Leonards with money from AmicusHorizon housing association and from the Homes and Communities Agency.

In this budget we have done all we can to protect vital frontline services and those services that local people have told us they value the most. But almost no-one in local government believes that councils as we know them are sustainable if the current reductions in financial support from central government continue.

2015-16 Budget

Working up a draft budget for the next two years has been a hugely difficult process after the government reduced the council’s spending power by 6.4% - the highest in the south east. Leading councillors and senior officers have spent many hours poring through the council’s spending - every pound has been examined to check if it is really needed. We have carried out in depth reviews of or largest spending areas and sought to improve and rationalise our internal processes

But we for the council’s 2015/16 budget it has been impossible to avoid further job losses and cuts to council services. However, key services to local people have been protected as best they can be.

We are reducing the number of directors from three to two, and we will look at the remainder of our senior management structure during this year with a view to making further savings. The loss of council posts has been restricted to around 20 this year, perhaps 40 over a two-year period – which is about 10% of our workforce. 

But we have managed to protect those services most dear to the hearts of local people and those that make the biggest difference to the town. However, some savings will still be difficult to swallow.

Of each £1 residents pay in council tax, just 14p comes to Hastings Borough Council, the rest goes to East Sussex County Council, Sussex Police, and the East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service. The budget includes a 1.9% increase in Hastings Borough Council’s element of the council tax, which will cost the average Band D council tax payer an extra £4.48 per year, or just under 10p per week.

Car park charges will also go up for the first time in two years and be frozen for the next two years. 

Over the next  two years the council will use around £1m of the reserves it built up to help cushion the transition down to a smaller, lower spending authority.

In 2015/16 the Old Town Museum is earmarked for closure with its displays to be taken to the main museum off Cambridge Road.  Only the Hastings Sierra Leone Friendship Link will receive any twinning money – there will no financial support for links with the other twin towns. There will be a significant cut in support for the annual Hastings Chess Congress and a reduction in the support the council has been able to give local community organisations.

The council is looking to make over £200,000 of savings by enabling more payment s by residents and contacts with the council to be completed electronically. It is also reducing its accommodation needs by introducing more flexible working arrangements for council staff. With computerised contact more staff can work from home at times or if out on the road not need to come back in to write reports. As a result a whole floor of the main Aquila House office block could be made vacant and available for letting out and so bringing in an income.

It is inevitable that we will become a smaller organisation delivering fewer services over the next two years because the money is not there. We will be putting renewed effort into looking for external funding opportunities, from Europe, etc. to try to sustain some of the important initiatives we have begun. However, even with fewer resources our commitment to reviving the town and improving the lives of local people remains.

The budget is now out for public consultation so let us know your views. The final decision will then be made at the full council meeting on 25^th February.

New Year, New Challenges

I’m confident 2015 is going to be a particularly significant year for our town. Hastings Pier will rise from the ashes – and I’m really pleased the council’s compulsory purchase of the structure played a big part in the restoration and the coming re-opening. Nearby the old White Rock Baths (where Miss Penny taught me to swim all those years ago) will at last come back into use in 2015 as a major new centre for BMX biking.

The council has further exciting plans for the seafront which we have been consulting local people on. The seafront is our shop window and as it improves so the whole town looks more attractive and appealing to visitors or to those planning to move here or relocate their business here. I  am determined we will make progress on the old Bathing Pool site in 2015 and the council will be looking at new ideas to unlock the economic potential of the White Rock and Falaise area.

The Bexhill-Hastings Link Road will open in 2015 and if that significantly reduces traffic on the seafront let’s look at how we can civilise that wide concrete space that separates the town from the sea.

Our open spaces will see significant progress in 2015. In the East a new visitor centre is planned for our treasured Country Park and a new visitor facility and play area are being prepared in the West in the new Combe Valley Countryside Park.

But we are not just about high profile improvements; we want to make sure everyone benefits from the revival of Hastings. The council has been consulting on the introduction of a licensing scheme for all privately rented accommodation in large parts of the town to ensure decent homes for tenants. In 2015 the council also plans to trial running a social lettings agency itself – which should benefit tenants and landlords alike. We will also be launching a second phase of the Coastal Space project with AmicusHorizon in Central St Leonards – buying up, improving and letting as social housing a further 50 flats.

In 2015 we will be retaining the same discount arrangements on council tax for benefit claimants despite the government taking away 10% of the funds for this. We will also be looking at how the activities funded by the life-saving local welfare assistance fund can be continued despite the government ending this special pot of money.

2015 will see the plans coming together for the major national cultural festival to mark 2016 the 950^th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Cultural regeneration will continue to be a major feature of our work to continue the town’s upward momentum.

I believe Hastings is at a turning point. The positive national press coverage over the last few months indicates how people around the country are looking at our town differently – as a town that is improving, that is creative and lively, a town really going somewhere. 2015 will see further progress in the renaissance of Hastings.

There is, however, a dark cloud hanging over Hastings Borough Council. We are facing the largest reduction in our spending power of any council in the south east following the government’s funding settlement for local authorities. We face a 6.4% reduction in 2015; Wealden council covering affluent places like Crowborough and Wadhurst will see a 1.4% rise. Difficult decisions will have to be made in this year’s council budget, but we will do everything we can to protect jobs and the council services that local residents value the most.

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