Press Releases week beginning 20 April 2020

Garden waste collections starting again

Hastings Borough Council garden waste collections are now resuming after previously being suspended in response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. The collections will begin again today, Monday 20 April.

Collections will take place on normal collection days which can be found via the online collection day look up.

Colin Fitzgerald, lead councillor for Environment and Community Safety, said,

"We understand residents have had difficulty with not having their garden waste collected so we have made the decision to return to our normal collection service.

An extra month will be added to your garden waste subscription to compensate for the recent suspended service.

Please make sure not to overload any bins, any extra garden waste will not be collected so please save it for your next collection."

Any missed collections should be reported via My Hastings.

Hastings Borough Council helps support businesses

Hastings Borough Council has been working to process Small Business and Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Grants since they were announced by Government earlier this month.

Peter Chowney, lead councillor for finance, said,

"The Council appreciates how difficult it is for businesses, their employees, and suppliers in the current challenging circumstances and is looking to provide support wherever it can. We will continue to lobby the government where there are gaps in the support.
The Revenues and Finance teams are working hard to process these payments to eligible businesses as quickly as possible. The Council has so far paid out £12,315,000 in grants between 1st and 19th April 2020 to 1,032 business premises within the borough. This represents 52% (by value) of the total sum the Council currently expects to be payable.

The Council has received information from 1,422 businesses out of 1,968 currently considered as eligible within the borough (79%). The remaining businesses who have not submitted their information are being encouraged to do so.

There are also other sources of financial assistance available to businesses and to specific business sectors - please see Help and support for businesses for further information and links to Government and other websites."

Hastings Community hub supports those in need

The community hub is a partnership between voluntary groups in the town, the NHS, Hastings Borough Council and East Sussex County Council dedicated to helping those in need during the Coronavirus outbreak.

Kim Forward, leader of Hastings Borough Council said,

"During this very difficult time we are determined to do our best to support those in need. Many referrals have been made through our Hub to those organisations mentioned below and to our Housing Options team and East Sussex County Council. We have also signposted many people to other services as well such as CA1066 and HEART (Hastings Emergency Action Response Team).

We are very thankful to all those involved with the community hub service and the effort they have put in to provide support for as many members of the community as possible."

As of Monday 20 April, in the last 4 weeks, approximately 640 people have contacted the Hub in need of support. The Hub has contacted most people and referred some of them to the organisations which can provide support they need.

In the first two weeks of April there were 147 food bank referrals, as well as 73 referrals to NHS volunteers and 16 referrals to Hastings Voluntary Action.

If you are urgently in need in need can contact the hub on 01424 451019. Please only call if you need support within 48 hours, to make sure those most in need can get support as soon as possible. If the need is not urgent, please use the online form instead.

More information can be found on the Community Hub webpages