Words: SGH Image: Hastings Rental Health’s new plot.A co-op isn’t just a weird little group of people opting out of wearing shoes together, it’s a collective making a joint decision that something would work much better without any self appointed, self-entitled whoevers exploiting us or doling out unnecessary orders from upon high. Cooperativism is co-operating…
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…
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…
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…
SGH has been attending the Hastings Housing Strategy steering group for the last 10 months. With co-writers Grace L and Ethan, they highlight fundamental issues with the Strategy, and ask just how useful is an ‘even-handed’ approach to tenants and landlords while we’re in a housing crisis directly caused by landlording? Featured artwork by Chris…
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…
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…
Hex News Team Archery Gardens is an almost-completed housing development in St Leonards. It used to have Hastings College on the site, and before that it was Victorian landscaping with some fancy houses. The 117 homes we see now on the site were built by local Battle-based developer Gemselect, in partnership with one of the…
Grace L One year after taking charge of Hastings Council many of our local councillors look ready to throw in the towel. Residents turned up to the 9 June meeting of the council cabinet (the leading members of council) to demand answers about the old Bathing Pool site and Sandrock Bends – two incredibly unpopular…
Grace L and Merlin Betts On 12 February Lucie Lambourne’s mother was murdered in their family home in Bexhill. The man arrested for the crime has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial in August. But as the results of this tragedy continue to unfold, Southern Housing wants to take Lucie’s family home, and sell it…