Organising anything during the COVID-19 restrictions is difficult, but a petition signing went ahead on the Old Bathing Pool site in West St Leonards on Saturday 20 June. This was organised by Save Our Bathing Site (SOBS) and West Marina Org, both local community groups opposing Hastings Borough Council’s plan for a high-rise, high-density housing development on the site. Bryan Fisher of West Marina Org reports.
The Foreshore Trust has awarded grants worth more than £45,000 to 11 local projects – including Stade Saturdays – offering a response to the effects of the coronavirus. Nick Terdre reports.
A few days ago Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that she has accepted all 30 recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned review. This is a chance to unravel the Hostile Environment, which has destroyed so many lives for so many years, and with it, one of its central pillars, indefinite immigration detention. Felicity Laurence, campaigns lead for Hastings Community of Sanctuary, describes this destructive policy, and the imminent opportunity to end it for good when the new immigration bill is debated in the Commons in the coming days.
When unstoppable utility meets administrative fixity, something’s got to give. Bernard McGinley, who also took the photos, looks at the Planning Committee’s recent decision to approve the installation of solar panels on the roof of a listed church in Ore against the advice of planners.
Just a few days after reopening public toilets, several have been vandalised, the council says. It is also just a few days since Conservative councillor Rob Lee criticised the council for being slow to reopen toilets. Nick Terdre reports.
On Wednesday 10 June, Kay Early, a woman in her 30s was walking her dog in broad daylight when she was brutally attacked by a man in his twenties. If it had not been for her resilience and the intervention of three passing women, she may not have been here to tell her story. The following day she wrote a detailed post on her Facebook page giving her account of what happened and photographing the result of the vicious attack. One week later, women in Hastings followed Kay’s path through Alexandra Park to show their support for her and to reclaim this public space for women to walk in safety. HOT’s Erica Smith caught up with them to tell their story.
Small businesses excluded from other forms of government support have until Wednesday to lodge an application for the discretionary grant fund. Small business grants have reached 85% take-up, according to the council. Nick Terdre reports.
The app which the government was trialling on the Isle of Wight has had to be abandoned – a setback for the test and trace system which lies at the heart of the government’s strategy for containing the spread of coronavirus while progressively relaxing restrictions and getting the economy and schools functioning again. Meanwhile the alert level has been reduced. Nick Terdre reports.
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