Words: Merlin Betts Artwork: Chris Sav @disappointman Well, it was a little more than a month to decide, and they’re backdating it so it’s more like the next 18 years, but you get the idea. The Local Plan is out for consultation, and our Hastings future is being decided. The decision-makers are a government in…
Words: Andrea Cowhig, Treasurer of Hastings Area Southern Housing Tenants Association (HASHTA). Image: “The Battle of Hollington” by P.A. Uri, the Marquis of Markwick. All Four Courts residents recently received a newsletter from Southern Housing (SH), please see our response, as there was some misleading information in there regarding HASHTA, which is rather upsetting. All…
In December 2025, the podcast team at Hex interviewed local powerhouse Dawn Dublin at Hatton’s Yard, a community space in St Leonards currently trying to remain open despite financial and arguably political pressures. Dawn Dublin set up Black Butterfly as an afro-centric mutual aid organisation in the 2020 lockdown. It was among many other mutual…
Every year for the last 4 years Umbrella Sussex have quietly hosted Free Shops a couple of times a year, and especially on Black Friday (AKA Buy Nothing Day). What’s a Free Shop? People bring stuff they no longer need, and take stuff they can use. What sets it apart from say, a clothes swop,…
Words: Merlin Betts. Images: SGH The morning of Thursday 28 August we went to the Hastings Borough Council (HBC) offices, hoping to catch the housing department after their weekly meeting. Three of us were with Thomas, a homeless man who the council are fighting in court. As I joined the group, another person responding to…
Text: Ethan Oshoko. Photo: @sonskaphotographystudio On Sunday the 13 July, residents from all over Hastings and St Leonards came together on the old bathing pool site in West St Leonards, in order to demonstrate two things: First, they demonstrated that developers will not be allowed to take public land and exploit it purely for profit…
Grace L After two and a half years in temporary accommodation, Thomas and Alice (not their real names) are appealing to Hastings Council to give them and their young child a secure home. Unlike other homeless families in temporary accommodation who are on the waiting list for social housing and can bid for places as…
Simon Lee, photo: @sonskaphotographystudio Something extraordinary happened at the old lido in St Leonards this July. Billed as a protestival, people gathered to show the local administration and property developers that really, we have had enough! In a hastily organised, but beautifully executed gathering, the people of St Leonards proclaimed their resolve and opposition to…
On 29 March, Hastings Assembles held a community assembly for two hours in Hastings Town Centre, for local people to meet and discuss the planned changes to local government, including the plan to abolish Hastings Borough Council and bring in a new elected mayor for all of Sussex. The afternoon kicked off with Julia Hilton, leader of Hastings council, explaining the overall…
David Williams For this article, I had a chat with Mat, the current project leader at the Hastings Bike Project (HBP). We talk about the origins, past, present and future plans of the project, as well as the challenges and joys of cycling, mastering the mechanics and running a community bike workshop. A Little Goes…