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…
Tag: unitary authority
A democracy worth defending?
Grace L Our local borough council is being abolished. It’s a done deal apparently. At the moment we have a local borough council in Hastings that makes decisions on a number of important issues – such as planning permission for new developments and dealing with homelessness – and a county council with a vastly bigger…
Unitary Power
Merlin Betts This article is part of a series. Find the previous article here, and overview here. Photo by Ben Guerin on Unsplash. In 2019 the ONS did a survey on deprivation across the UK. Hastings is the 14th most income-deprived area in the country. The closest to that in East Sussex is Eastbourne at…
Longread: Town on the Edge
Merlin Betts To read this as a series, head here. You might be excused for thinking that Hastings is doing well. People are flocking over and down to experience the charms of this unique, creative and historical seaside borough – a stretch of coastline that represents what Britain has been and is trying to be….