Observer column 24 May 2024

At this week's annual council I was elected leader of the first Green administration of Hastings Borough Council, the same night that the General Election was called. It is a huge privilege to be elected to serve the people of Hastings.

Hastings needs to be a place where residents are proud of their town and feel safe, valued, and heard; where housing is available, affordable, and energy efficient, and people can live healthy fulfilling lives.

A variety of funding streams will help us tackle the housing crisis. This will improve lives and reduce the huge amount the council has to spend on the provision of temporary accommodation. Developing a new housing strategy will improve housing standards.

Tackling the huge health inequalities in our town must be at the heart of everything we do. Because human and planetary health are intertwined, these ambitions go hand in hand with tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis. A local climate adaptation plan that addresses the extreme weather we are already experiencing and the resulting floods, landslips and water contamination is a major priority. This should start with the essential flood prevention work for our town centre which will be led by Southern Water. Our job as a council is to ensure they fulfil these plans as soon as possible.

All councillors reacted with anger and dismay at the news that Southern Water are not intending to properly compensate individual residents for the loss of water over the bank holiday period. Southern Water are claiming that the statutory thirty pounds of compensation for every twelve hours of water loss to the 30,000 households who lost access to water over the weekend do not apply in this case. Instead a community fund of £500,000 is being offered plus £120,000 for festivals, schools, and to compensate the Jack in the Green festival. While the funds are welcome, we need to put pressure on Southern Water to ensure that the households that most deserve compensation are directly reimbursed.

In the coming months and years we will be moving forward with some exciting Town Deal projects, including an upgrade of the Hastings Castle and West Hill Café. The aim is to have this work complete in time for the major international festival in 2027, led by the French region of Normandy, celebrating the 1000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. The major town centre public realm and 'green connections' project as well as future work with Homes England will leverage new investment in the town. I am keen to ensure that all such projects should be community led, and that we attract the kind of investment that allows public assets to stay in public hands for the long term.