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The Baton of Hope team in preparation for Tuesday’s march through town.
The UK’s largest ever suicide prevention initiative is coming to Hastings on Tuesday 23 September 2025. Hastings is hosting a full day with events across the town, to raise awareness of suicide prevention, promote good mental health and wellbeing, and to spread the message of hope. Erica Smith gets ready to cheer the Baton as it is carried through town.
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A national fund that has helped develop projects in Bexhill, Crowhurst, Forest Row, Lewes, Ovingdean and Peacehaven is now drastically underfunded. Energise Sussex Coast’s Gabriel Carlyle explains.
This coming Saturday, 20 September, sees National Car Free Day, which will be marked by an event in Hastings town centre from 11am to 3pm. There will be plenty of opportunities to find out more and get involved, as Ian Sier of Hastings Sustainable Transport Forum explains.
Hastings White Rock Theatre will be opening its doors on Sunday 21 September, 12pm – 4pm, for a free Open Day – the first under the new management of The Guildhall Trust. This special event invites everyone to explore the venue and enjoy a vibrant showcase of the activities, entertainment, and workshops. This from the White Rock press office.
The fact that the mayoral elections next May will be based on the first-past-the-post system has attracted widespread criticism, including most recently from local Liberal Democrats, who wonder just how low the support for the successful candidate could be. When they took their concerns to Hastings & Rye MP Helena Dollimore, she accepted the point in principle. Nick Terdre reports, research and graphic by Russell Hall.
Over 1,100 people have signed a petition proclaiming that ‘Hastings is Proudly Trans inclusive – Let’s Keep it That Way’. Erica Smith reports.
Music journalist Ben Thompson sings the praises of local legend, and member of Borough Council (the band, not the administrative body), musician Haydn Ackerley.
The site of the Old Bathing Pool (OBP) in West St Leonards continues to attract support for a better future as well as fond memories of its sunny past. Importantly, a revision of the Local Development Plan reopens possibilities, including for elsewhere. A new exhibition at Electro Studios in Seaside Road says more. Bernard McGinley reports.
Hastings Book Festival opens on Friday 12 September and runs until Saturday 20 September with Nigel Planer taking the stage at The Observer Building. Erica Smith puts on her reading glasses.
Hastings Botanic Garden Project brings their Garden Festival back to Hastings Museum & Art Gallery for the third year next Sunday (14 September). The event will be a FREE festival filled with family fun, kids’ activities – and food and music from Brazil – all inspired by the amazing botanic artist Marianne North, who was born in Hastings in 1830 and spent a year in Brazil. Erica Smith encourages you to visit Brazil from the comfort of your own local Museum.
This September the Electric Palace is bringing you a wave of films that revel in the visual and visceral spectacle of water and swimming on the big screen! Co-curated with local beachside partners including Samphire Sauna and At Sea Studio, the cinema in Old Town will be showing new releases like Some Like it Classic and Wind, Tide and Oar alongside cult classic The Swimmer, says Annie Waite.
Andrew Hemsley, writer and journalist for the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, talks with HOT’s Chandra Masoliver about the writers who have influenced his own writing. This will be followed by a second article with his own writing and the blog he will launch.
The UK’s free speech crackdown continues as Israeli human rights organisations condemn Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza. HOT’s Erica Smith reports.
Local residents – including folk in Hastings & St Leonards – are opening their homes to public this September, so that people can view energy-saving improvements and renewables. Energise Sussex Coast’s Gabriel Carlyle explains what’s happening.
Hastings’ cultural reputation needs to be expanded to acknowledge its prominence as a town of poetry. A new anthology, to be launched during the rapidly approaching Hastings Book Festival, makes the case, as Ben Sumner eloquently argues.
As Labour escalates its anti-migrant rhetoric and legislation in a bid to emulate Reform UK and the Conservatives, the voice of those seeking to understand and help refugees and asylum-seekers receives little attention. But it has not been stilled. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the movement that gave rise to Hastings Community of Sanctuary, a leading local vehicle for supporting those who come here needing our help, as the organisation’s Pal Luthra documents.
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