Things we don't do

The following services are provided by East Sussex County Council:

• Children's centres and day centres for elderly people
• Education
• Fire and Rescue
• Health care, clinics, health visitors, doctors or dentists
• Libraries
• Local bus services
• Local landfill site (tip)
• Road and pavement repairs and traffic calming
• Social housing (Housing Associations do this)
• Social services - support and residential care for vulnerable children, older people and people with disabilities; family support; adoption and fostering, and child protection
• Street lighting

Things we must

By law we must provide the following services:

• Licence premises (eg. pubs, clubs, off-licences) and activities such as taxis and private hire vehicles, street trading etc.)
• Protect people against pollution and deal with complaints about noise nuisance, faulty drains and air pollution
• Inspect food premises to ensure they meet public health standards
• Collect rubbish and recycling
• Clean the streets
• Determine Planning Applications (eg. new developments, house extensions, conservatories, garages etc) and enforce planning conditions
• Use our powers to improve poor housing conditions and license Houses in Multiple Occupation (eg. bedsits)
• Administer Disabled Facilities Grants to help people adapt their homes
• Provide temporary accommodation for homeless households
• Collect Council Tax and Business Rates
• Pay Housing Benefit to those who qualify and detect fraud when it occurs
• Provide housing advice, tackle homelessness and manage the housing register (the waiting list for social housing)
• Encourage development of new affordable housing
• Maintain our seafront and sea defences
• Provide a cemetery
• Play a role in civil emergencies eg. floods by supporting victims and providing temporary accommodation
• Manage all local, national and European elections

Things we need to do

To support our work we need to:

• Communicate with local people via letter, e-mail, phone and face-to-face
• Employ, support, train and pay our staff
• Manage the public money that we are given
• Manage our own properties, land and factories
• Maintain IT and communications systems that help people contact us, keep records, pay for services electronically (eg. websites: www.hastings.gov.uk)

Even though we need to do these things, we are still trying to do them as efficiently as possible to make sure they offer good value for money.

Things we choose to do

We choose to do a wide range of things that we think are important in meeting the unique needs of Hastings, and our aim to improve our economy, reduce poverty and deprivation and improve the quality of life and our local environment.

The challenge ahead of us now is to make decisions about spending priorities and we need to know which of these things you value the most.

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