Downs Farm and Broomgrove improvements

Joint working between Hastings Borough Council and Southern Housing has led to improvements being made across Downs Farm and Broomgrove.

Following the council receiving UK Shared Prosperity Funding from the UK Government, council officers have been working together with Southern Housing and other partners over the last few months listening to residents’ feedback and making improvements. As part of this work, several joint community events have been held which have shown projects that need to be done at the estates.

Work on these projects has included: repairing all communal bins on both sites and working on the introduction of food waste collections; reducing some of the hedge heights around bin stores to improve community safety and replacing and repairing the coal sheds with the support of residents.

A significant amount of work has been done to cut down on littering and fly-tipping – including changing the day for estate days to after rubbish collections. A course is being run to offer a qualification in Waste Management for residents who are keen to learn how to empower residents around waste and recycling and about culture change. In Broomgrove, an area has been cleared of fly-tipping and higher fences have been installed to try to prevent fly-tipping in the future.

The UK Shared Prosperity fund funded Groundwork South who deliver a Community Green Engagement Project across Halton, Farley Bank and Downs Farm. At one of the joint community events, residents stated they would like a community garden and Southern Housing agreed they could utilise some land. Work has started with Groundwork South on a community garden in Downs Farm, but the poor weather so far this year has delayed progress on this.

Cllr Glenn Haffenden, leader of Hastings Borough Council and lead councillor for housing, said: “I’m really pleased to see how this joint working has helped make some significant improvements to these areas for residents. Many of these seem like small changes, but they have come from discussions with residents and show how small changes can make a big difference to their lives. We are keen to continue working closely with Southern Housing and other organisations to keep these improvements going.”

Vanessa Biddiss, Head of Region at Southern Housing, said: “We’re happy to hear from residents that these positive changes are already making a real difference. We know there’s still more work to do and we’ll continue to listen to residents and build on the progress already made. We’re grateful to Hastings Borough Council for their continued support. This strong partnership work will be vital in delivering further improvements for our local communities.”