Observer column 12 March 2026

Cllr Julia Hilton, deputy leader of Hastings Borough Council and lead councillor for shaping place and local government reorganisation 

I’m pleased to be able to update you on the flagship project of our Town Deal programme – Hastings Castle and West Hill Cafe. The project is really exciting and will see the revitalisation of our historic castle and the West Hill site with a new cafe and visitors’ centre. We are also investing in work to the West Hill Lift which will provide important alternative access to the site. We are committed to supporting this project through to completion as a vital part of boosting tourism to our town. 

At Cabinet on Monday 2 March, we agreed funding for repair works to the Castle walls, and to the West Hill Lift, which will allow the projects to progress. We also heard an update on work to make the area around the castle into a nature reserve, which is great news, and will help us protect some of the amazingly named bees that live on the site. Did you know that the area around the castle is one of the few homes in East Sussex for the Lesser Calamint plant and that all the sandy surfaces and crumbly cliffs are ideal habitat for such wonderfully named bees such as the Pantaloon Bee, Long Horned Bee and the Painted Nomad Bee? 

Troika Projects, who are delivering the castle project for us, are in the process of submitting a planning application for the visitors’ centre, this will be online soon for you to view and comment on (Update - you can view the planning application). A huge amount of effort has gone into designing a building that will sit lightly on the site, using low carbon materials as well as careful landscaping. 

As part of the project, we need to complete a legal process to dispose of a small piece of land around the West Hill Cafe which will allow the new centre to be built. The rest of the land on the West Hill will be unaffected, including the area that will become a nature reserve. There won’t be any cost to the council in creating this new Local Nature Reserve, but it was one of our priority actions in our Corporate Plan, so I’m pleased to see it progressing. 

The other Town Deal projects are also moving towards completion, with updates on the Public Realm and Green Connections project coming in the next few weeks. You will be able to see some updates on both projects at the Good Future Event on Saturday 14 March at the Observer Building from 10am to 4pm. Look out for our short video explaining both the intentions behind the trial planting on the sea front and also the wider ambitions for greening our town centre. 

Updates on all the Town Deal projects are posted on the Town Deal blog website and on the Town Deal social media sites.