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The image of our town is beginning to change. And if we want more people to visit the town, invest in the town and to create more jobs in the town then what they think about Hastings is vitally important.
Back in December the Daily Telegraph commented on two towns:
Brighton: "That brash old lady of the South Coast has been hogging the limelight for so long that her charms are becoming too familiar. Crowded beaches and streets ... the Lanes crammed with visitors, no longer offer much sense of discovered charm."
Hastings: "An hour down the coast lies no tough lady but a faded flower awaiting revival. The town has an unfairly shoddy reputation but has been working at this - and its star is rising. A university opened in 2003 injecting new blood, the seafront has improved and 2004 will see a seafront car park turned into a Foster-designed four-star hotel."
Of course this is just first beginnings. But it shows that our big physical regeneration plans especially for the town centre are starting to make people view the town differently. The everyday activities are helping too. One hundred and fifty properties (one a week) have been improved since Hastings Borough Council declared war on derelict buildings. The council has removed 2,300 dumped and untaxed cars from the streets in the last 12 months. More money is being put in to making Hastings & St Leonards 'clean, green and safe'.
All this is helping throw off that image of neglect that used to hang over the town.
This edition of About is giving us all another progress report on the big physical projects, on the prestige millennium community housing programme and on the many local council and community activities that all make up a town that is reviving, a town whose "star is rising."
Councillor Jeremy Birch
Leader of Hastings Borough Council
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Pictures courtesy of Bob Mazzer
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This page last updated: 26/04/2004