Local residents should finally get a sight of all the proposals submitted in the Town Deal call for ideas last year following the ICO’s decision requiring Hastings Borough Council to publish the list it has determinedly kept under wraps. Nick Terdre reports.
Hastings has been awarded £24.3m from the government’s Towns Fund for regeneration, a little short of what it applied for. But if match funding of £85m can be raised, £100m will be available to invest in the town. Before government funding is released, business cases for the proposed projects have to be developed and approved. Nick Terdre reports, photos by Russell Jacobs.
The Town Investment Plan – Hastings’ Town Deal bid – could bring more than £110m into the town to fund a range of projects. If the Town Deal board’s vision becomes reality, Hastings will become the South East’s first green city, with new housing, commercial and leisure facilities, new jobs and two regional ‘green skills’ bases. Nick Terdre reports.
Hastings’ Town Deal investment plan – which could net the town £25m – has to be submitted by the end of January. In the face of scant communication with the public, however, concerns have emerged about how the process has been managed, if the guidelines have been adhered to and whether the deal will prove, as intended, beneficial to the whole borough. Nick Terdre reports.
Two stalwarts of Hastings Urban Design Group, Ken Davis and Chris Lewcock, offer their thoughts on the government’s proposed reform of the planning system, both writing in a personal capacity.
Hastings Borough Council says it is taking steps to implement its climate change strategy, including establishing an internal board, and calls on residents to play their part. Its actions have drawn scepticism and criticism from some quarters, including the claim that its plan lacks vision and ambition. Nick Terdre reports.
Now that the council’s climate change strategy is in the public domain, the voices omitted from helping to form it can be heard. Chris Lewcock, former chair of Hastings Urban Design Group, local government town planner and lecturer in the built environment, wonders whether, when we are past the Covid-19 crisis, a Hastings reboot conference open to all could help us put the climate emergency centre-stage. Below, the Green Party’s Julia Hilton calls for concrete goals and localist action.
Prompted by what are widely seen as inappropriate council plans for the old bathing pool site in West Marina, the West St Leonards community is now seeking to organise itself to have a greater say in what happens in its area. These efforts are being headed by the West St Leonards Forum, on whose behalf Bryan Fisher has issued this press release.
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