Hastings Neighbourhood Board

Find out more about the members of the Hastings Neighbourhood Board.

Update - November 2025

This page is being updated.

Led by community or business leader: Chair, Kevin Boorman

Kevin was born in the Old Town in the 1950s and has lived in the town all his life. He joined British Rail on their graduate training scheme and spent over 20 years on the railway, in supervisory and managerial posts, leaving when BR was privatised. He then joined Hastings Borough Council in 1998 and retired in 2023 having worked in senior tourism, marketing and communications posts.

He is a keen railway enthusiast, and when not wearing his anorak enjoys photography and walking. He is a volunteer director at the Southeast Communities Rail Partnership, the Shipwreck Museum, the Hastings Sierra Leone Friendship Link and the Two Towers Trust; he chairs the latter, a local charity to raise funds to maintain the two mediaeval churches in Hastings Old Town. He is also a launch authority for Hastings RNLI lifeboat. He was a school governor, and chair of governors, for many years.

Kevin has five children and four grandchildren (and counting!), three of his children still live in the town, two having returned to Hastings having lived and worked in London for a number of years.

Kevin his proud of his local heritage - he and his siblings attended the same school that their Mum did, all five of his children went there and one of his grandchildren starts there in September. His nan’s brother, his great uncle, was cox of the Hastings lifeboat in 1940 and took it to Dover, for Dunkirk.

Led by community or business leader: Tracy Dighton, Vice Chair - voluntary, community and social enterprises.

Tracy Dighton biography and photo to follow

Led by community or business leader: Rebecca Conroy, CEO/Principal, East Sussex College Group 

Rebecca has worked across the education sector for over 25 years with a focus on inclusion and widening participation in schools, Further Education and Higher Education.  Rebecca was appointed at CEO & Principal at East Sussex College in 2020, and has since then supported a transformation in the college’s curriculum development, quality, financial health and reputation.  

East Sussex College has a £60million annual turnover and supports over 5,000 young people and 10,000 adult students. The college is proud of the vital role it plays in community regeneration.  

Rebecca is Chair of the Board of Trustees at South Downs Learning Trust and Chair of Further Education Sussex.  

Helena Dollimore, MP for Hastings and Rye 

Helena is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Hastings and Rye. She was born and bred in East Sussex, attended local state schools and spent her lockdown as a volunteer vaccinator in Hastings supporting the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine. 
 
Helena has a professional background in international development. Her work at Save the Children took her from refugee camps in Bangladesh to war zones like Yemen, where she stood up for the world’s most vulnerable children. Now she is using that experience to stand up for Hastings and Rye, campaigning on issues like long ambulance waits and ending the dumping of sewage in our sea.

As the Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, Helena will fight for every resident of Hastings and Rye at Westminster to deliver a fairer, greener future for all. 

Councillor - upper tier local government: East Sussex County Council, Cllr Godfrey Daniel - public sector, political

Godfrey Daniel, after a career in teaching and education, was also involved in youth work and fostering.

He has lived in Hastings for over 40 years and was a JP (Justice of the Peace) for some 28 years. He was elected as a Labour Hastings Borough Councillor in 1994 and served for 20 years, including two years as the Mayor of Hastings. Then he was elected in 1997 until the present, as the Labour East Sussex County Councillor for Braybrooke & Castle.

During this latter role he served, at times, on the Sussex Police Authority, Sussex Probation Board and as a Non-Executive Director of the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. He still works as an Associate Hospital Manager for the Sussex Partnership Trust as an independent (of the Trust) volunteer.
He has been instrumental in setting up firstly the Hastings Welsh Society and more recently Hastings Male Voices, and as a proud Welshman, singing is in his blood!

Godfrey is pleased that the Government is putting in additional money to benefit our community and looking forward to it being spent wisely to achieve lasting improvements to our town.

Councillor - lower tier local government: Hastings Borough Council, Deputy Leader Cllr Julia Hilton - public sector, political

Julia is deputy leader of Hastings Borough Council and Deputy Leader of the Green Group of councillors.

She is also a county councillor for Old Hastings and Tressell and portfolio lead for Shaping Places, Assets and Local Government Reorganisation. Other roles include deputy chair of the LGA Policy Committee on Public Service Reform and Innovation.

She trained as a ceramicist at Edinburgh College of Art and worked in the field of public art before retraining as a landscape architect with a particular focus on play and working with communities, schools and housing associations to regenerate their green spaces.

Business Improvement District: Love Hastings Ltd Chair Andrew Harvey - business

Andy has worked in the retail & hospitality sector for 30 years and has been the Centre Manager of Priory Meadow Shopping Centre for the past six years. During that time he has formed strong relationships with retailers, local businesses, and the community.  
Andy sits proudly as the Chairman of Hastings BID and proactively immerses himself within all aspects of the town. 

Police and Crime Commissioner: Katy Bourne, Sussex Police - public sector, police  

Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne was re-elected for a fourth term in 2024. Katy Bourne was raised and schooled in Sussex before graduating from Aberystwyth University. She still lives in mid-Sussex, is married to Kevin and has two adult sons. She was a successful business woman before entering politics and is now in her fourth term as Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Sussex making her the longest serving female PCC and one of only two to have been elected four times.

The PCC's role is to hold the Chief Constable of Sussex Police to account for the performance of the Force, effectively making the police answerable to the communities they serve. Katy is responsible for setting the strategic direction and priorities for Sussex Police through the Police & Crime Plan. This includes setting the police budget and local police precept - the amount residents pay for policing in their council tax.
She also has a statutory duty to commission support services for victims of crime - including stalking and sexual and domestic abuse - and to deliver community safety initiatives including restorative justice and crime reduction grants.

Katy is currently National Lead of the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners (APCC) portfolio for Business/Retail Crime and Chair of the Sussex Criminal Justice Board. She is also the APCC National Spokesperson for Stalking and a Board Director of the APCC. Katy was a former Chair and non-Exec Director of the national Police Digital Service and former Chair of the APCC. In June 2019 she was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of her public and political service.

Inspector Matt Chapman  - Hastings District Inspector, Sussex Police - public sector, police  

Inspector Matt Chapman is the local Inspector for Hastings, responsible for the style and visibility of policing across the town. Born and raised locally, Matt is proud to serve the community he calls home and is dedicated to making Hastings a safer and more welcoming place to live and work.

Matt’s journey with Sussex Police began at just 14 years old when he joined as a Police Cadet in Hastings. He later volunteered as a Special Constable before becoming a regular police officer 11 years ago. Over the years, Matt has worked in a variety of roles across Hastings and East Sussex, progressing through the ranks of Constable, Sergeant and now Inspector.

Before taking up his current post, Matt worked as a Critical Incident Inspector within East Sussex Response and Investigations, leading the police response to some of the county’s most serious incidents.

In June 2025, Matt became the Inspector for Neighbourhood Policing in Hastings. He now leads local teams focused on tackling community concerns, working with partner organisations, and improving safety across the area. Matt remains passionate about building strong relationships between the police and the public to make Hastings a place everyone can feel proud of.

Integrated Care Board: Mark Smith - Interim CEO (NHS Sussex)

Biography and photo to follow

Youth voice: TBC Connected Futures rep from young person researchers group - community representation

Biography to follow

Business: Sean Dennis, Director Chamber of Commerce - business

Following a successful career in commercial banking, Sean is now the Deputy Chief Executive of Let's Do Business Group and Managing Director of its subsidiary, Let's Do Business Finance, which are two of the largest social enterprise business support and finance organisations across the South East and East of England assisting hundreds of micro and SME's to start, grow, prosper and access finance every year. 

In addition, to his 'day job' Sean has helped head up the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce for the past 8 years, as Chamber Director, representing a diverse membership from start-ups and micro enterprises to some of the largest employers in the area, as well as community, voluntary, charity and public sector. Through this role he has sat on a range of boards including the LSP, Town Deal, Connected Future, Hastings and Rother Task Force and many more.

Voluntary and Community Sector: Hastings Voluntary Action, Steve Manwaring 

Steve is the Chief Executive of Hastings Voluntary Action (HVA). This is the accredited
Local Infrastructure Organisation for Voluntary Organisations, Community Groups, and
Social Enterprises offering a range of support services for not for profit organisations together
with training networking and representation.

Culture: Culture representatives, Adam Daly (Arts Hastings) / Mandy Curtis (18 Hours) 

Adam has over 35 years of experience in the production and event management industry, managing conferences, trade shows, exhibitions, theatre shows, music events and tours in the UK, Australia, Europe, South East Asia and North America. 15 years ago Adam was a founding member of Hastings Fat Tuesday and is also co-owner of the Albion Pub in Hastings Old Town.

Mandy has a background in History of Art & Archaeology (Africa and Asia) | PGCE Primary | PhD: Human Geography. She has over 20 years experience in delivering events and festivals in Hastings and Sussex. Her organisation, 18 Hours, is driven by a passion for fostering global understanding through events, education and research. Her current portfolio consists of seven festivals including: St Leonards Festival, Hastings Storytelling Festival, Journeys Festival of Dance, Bexhill After Dark, University of East London After Dark, Streets of Wealden, and Sidley Festival. Mandy's most recent research focuses on measuring attitudinal change in community light festivals, wider societal impacts of community festivals, and audience perceptions of performances augmented with haptic technology (in partnership with Falmouth University and Deaf Rave).

Education

To be confirmed

Health: Darrell Gale, East Sussex County Council - Public Health

Biography and photo to follow