Julia Hilton
Julia Hilton
1 April, 2025
Opinion

Hastings council leader: major milestone in housing acquisition project

As an administration we have committed to listening to our communities’ views, and there will be lots of opportunities to do that over the coming months. First up we will be asking you if we should renew and possibly extend the Public Space Protection Order that bans drinking and aggressive begging in the town centre. We have to review these every three years and the current one runs out in July. We have also had complaints about anti-social behaviour and graffiti in Bottle Alley with requests for CCTV to make the area feel safer, so we’d like to hear your views on that.

Julia Hilton Leader Hastings Borough Council

Over the winter a wide variety of groups with an interest in improving housing in the town worked with the council on the principles for a draft housing strategy, so we will also be seeking your views on that, especially around bringing back a licensing scheme for the private rental sector. We’d like to get feedback on how we can enable more social and community led housing as well as how to better support the many people who don’t have a secure home, including those who have to resort to living in caravans on our streets.

This week we celebrate a major milestone in our housing acquisition programme with the purchase of our 100th home. I had the privilege of visiting some of our residents who now have much better quality accommodation, some of it specially adapted for families with disabled members, using the disabled facilities grant. Huge thanks must go to our housing team who have worked incredibly hard, in many cases going from purchase to renovation to residents moving in within four months.

I have long wanted to see a Green summit in Hastings, bringing together all the great work already going on to create a good future for our town, and so am really looking forward to the first Good Future event this Saturday 5 April at Sussex College, Station Plaza from 10.30 – 3.30 pm. There will be stalls from thirty different organisations and talks on everything from how local businesses can be part of creating a local circular economy, to opportunities for locally owned renewable energy. We will also learn of progress on the restoration of marine life off our coast since the introduction of the trawler ban. I will be there sharing information on to the progress we’ve made on plans to green and in general improve our town centre. The event is also running especially for students at the college this Thursday and I look forward to hearing their ideas and responses. After all, they are the future of our town!

Finally I want to thank all the emergency services and the staff at Hastings Borough Council who worked so hard to bring the major incident in St Leonards last week to a safe conclusion. I am delighted that the Hastings Half Marathon will be able to go ahead at the new date of 5 October.