HOT is run by volunteers but has overheads for hosting and web development. Support HOT!
Advertise your business or your event on HOT for as little as £20 per month
Find out more…
If you like HOT and want to keep it sustainable, please Donate via PayPal, it’s easy!
Do you want to write, proofread, edit listings or help sell advertising? then contact us
Part of the Project Art Works Collective at Hastings Contemporary, May 2021 © Project Art Works
The recently announced Turner Prize shortlist consists of five art collectives including Hastings-based Project Art Works. Erica Smith salutes this inspiring and vibrant group. Continue reading…
Would proportional representation have made a difference to the outcome of last week’s HBC election? James Prentice, lead researcher for Capture Politics, a local research organisation specialising in data analysis and interpretation, has mashed the numbers to throw light on the matter.
Judgement day for Labour in Hastings: the party loses half of its borough council seats up for election to a Tory surge while jubilant Greens gain a historic first seat. Chris Connelley casts an eye over the results, identifying the winners and losers in this year’s battle for the local council.
53 candidates for the 6 May elections to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) have signed a climate action pledge, committing themselves to supporting the divestment of the East Sussex Pension Fund from fossil fuels – the Conservatives are only main political party with no signatories in East Sussex. The East Sussex Pension Fund, which is administered by East Sussex County Council, currently has over £70m of local people’s pension monies invested in the giant oil and gas companies like Shell and BP. Erica Smith looks at which candidates in the Hastings area have signed the pledge.
Police numbers – are they up or down? – are a leading source of disagreement among candidates for Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner. Nick Terdre offers a brief guide.
Whilst the DFL Facebook page might be all of a flutter about whether Waitrose is moving to Hastings, JJ Waller has his heart set on a very different consumer outlet. Erica Smith visited Fat Sue’s Cornershop in Bulverhythe Road to see what documentary photographer JJ Waller has been up to in West St Leonards.
The rollercoaster that has arisen by the Boating Lake on the Old Town seafront does not have planning permission, or an application, and wasn’t even notified to Hastings Borough Council (HBC) or the Foreshore Trust (FT). Do Permitted Development Rights (PDR) apply? What about the issues of the perimeter fence and the footpath, so controversial a few years ago? Will the Council or the FT take action? Bernard McGinley looks at another fine mess, and also took the photos.
Andy Patmore, new leader of the Tory HBC group, explains where he thinks Labour’s leadership of HBC has gone wrong, as the party looks to improve its minority representation on Hastings Borough Council and maintain its majority on East Sussex County Council. Meanwhile it has moved to dissociate itself from what has been called a “racist” tweet by one of its candidates. Nick Terdre reports.
Ore in Bloom’s ‘The Green Shoots of Spring’ offers a fabulous opportunity to beginner gardeners and the longer term green-fingered, who feel they can still learn something! Plus, lots of encouragement to get outside and into nature. HOT’s Zelly Restorick speaks to Anna Locke, local permaculture and ecological gardener.
‘Bottles From…’ is a one-of-a-kind environmental project, catalysed by the government’s proposal to include a Deposit Return Scheme for drinking containers in the coming Environmental Bill. We are urged by Andy Dinsdale, executive director for Strandliners, a local community interest company (CIC), to record any glass or plastic drinking bottles and metal cans we see in our rural and urban environments and send our information to them by 31 May. HOT’s Zelly Restorick writes.
As the local election campaign enters its final phase, Chris Connelley takes the political temperature in West St Leonards, where two major planning issues are polarising party positions.
Encouraged as their politics pull in increasing numbers of new members and supporters, local Greens are contesting all Hastings wards and most East Sussex divisions in the hope of finally winning seats. Nick Terdre asked where they stand on major issues of local interest. All photos courtesy of the Green Party.
The May Day bank holiday signals Jack in the Green – and Monday sees a virtual procession of the Jack along the traditional route, the culmination of a five-day festival. Nick Terdre reports.
The thrust of the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign is aimed at County Hall, where they see cooperation between the opposition parties as the key to overturning the Conservative majority. The Rother Alliance provides a successful example of the strategy in action, they say. Nick Terdre reports. Photos supplied by the Lib Dems.
In the upcoming local elections the Labour Party will be looking to maintain its dominance of Hastings Borough Council, as well as safeguarding its four seats on East Sussex County Council. Nick Terdre takes a look at the party’s manifesto and its line-up of candidates, which includes several new faces. All photos provided by Labour.
In a town where the prospect of upsets in the upcoming local elections is generally remote, it is the Old Hastings ward where the likelihood looks greatest, following the Greens’ narrow loss to Labour in 2018. Chris Connelley has been out with both parties’ candidates to find out what they have to offer the electorate.
