The Old Bathing Pool site as it is today. Image: Anna Sabin

Green-led Council under fire for siding with developers

Councillors on Hastings Borough Council’s Green-only cabinet are facing criticism from local campaign groups over the Council’s refusal to consult with residents on their Local Plan for Hastings. Alexia Masardo from the West Marina Partnership explains why they’re angry.

The Local Plan, which sets the legal parameters for all future development plans for the Hastings, is due to be published imminently.

Anna Sabin, who has been working for a number of years with hundreds of other residents to create a Neighbourhood Plan for West St Leonards, is one of the local campaigners planning to protest at the next Council Cabinet meeting on Monday 9 June. She’s asking for transparency and collaboration on the plan – in particular over plans for the Old Bathing Pool site. She insists that the council should consider the views of West St. Leonards residents as expressed in their draft Neighbourhood Plan before publishing the Hastings Local Plan.

“Hastings Local Plan will determine what developments can or can’t go ahead for the next decade or more”, said Anna, “and it will be the legal basis on which all future planning applications will be decided. If councillors drawing up the Local Plan don’t work with residents to hear their point of view – and if the Local Plan doesn’t include any of their aspirations for the area – then all our work will have been for nothing.”

‘Too busy’

Another local campaign group, Standing up for Nature (SU4N), which is campaigning against development on green areas such as Sandrock Bends, recently organised a public assembly to gather residents’ views on housing and planning in the town. It also attended a cabinet meeting in January to also ask for a meeting with the council about their findings.

According to Yee Chuan Mayhew from SU4N: “We were told that planning officers were ‘too busy’ and we are still waiting for a proper meeting with councillors. We recognise that the council is caught in a difficult place with the pressure of government targets, and developers threatening to sue or go over their heads to the Secretary of State. However, we urge them to be strong and bold, with the support of the electorate, who chose the Green Party, confident that they wouldn’t roll over when it comes to unreasonable demands from the government. We would like to believe that the Green Party will hold on to its mandate and protect our green spaces for nature, which in turn provide for all our mental and emotional wellbeing, and preserve much needed recreational space and natural soakaway areas to deal with flooding risks as well.”

‘It’s a betrayal’

Campaigners across the town are getting increasingly frustrated with what they perceive as the council’s complicity with the demands of developers.

Lucie Mason from the Save Our Bathing Pool Site said: “We collected thousands of signatures in support of a community-led vision for this council-owned land. Instead of listening to residents, the council quietly pushed ahead, stripping this public asset from the community and cutting a backroom deal with developers. Not only has the council failed to engage with residents, the lease terms haven’t even been made public. Let’s be clear: this is publicly owned coastal land—one of the last major seafront sites we have left. It belongs to all of us, and the council is supposed to be its caretaker, not its auctioneer. Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good—handed-over for private profit instead of being protected for future generations.

“This land has huge potential to deliver a truly transformative leisure destination—something that could drive jobs, tourism, and wider regeneration – including appropriate residential development – in an area long overlooked. Yes, we’re in a housing crisis but how many times have we heard that excuse used to justify luxury developments with zero affordable homes? Look at Station Plaza. Look at Gensing Manor – not one affordable home has been included in either of these developments!

“We know the government is pushing the council to increase the overall target number of houses built in the town. They could use the Local Plan to demand sustainable, community-focused development—but they don’t. Why? This isn’t just a planning issue—it’s a betrayal. A council that ran for election on promises of transparency, community engagement, and a ‘vision of hope’ has failed to invite or encourage any direct, meaningful, involvement from residents on this crucial issue. Their actions fly in the face of everything they claimed to stand for. We will not sit silently by, while they sell off our town, piece by piece.”

Grace Lally from Housing Rebellion said campaigners are planning a pop-up festival this summer to build a united movement for ‘the community v. the developers’: “We are calling on our councillors to develop a Local Plan that will deliver for all the people who desperately need social housing and that will protect our environment – not a corporate charter to let developers run riot. Councillors need to pick a side, but if they are going to keep bowing down to the demands of developers, then communities need to take it into our own hands to block the bulldozers and stop these dodgy developments ourselves.”

Campaigners are intending to protest at the next Hastings Borough Council (HBC) Cabinet meeting on Monday 9th June – meeting 5.45pm outside Muriel Matters House with banners and going into the meeting at 6pm to put questions directly to council leaders.

Links:
St Leonards SOBS (Save Our BathingPool Site)
Standing Up for Nature
Housing Rebellion: housingrebellion@protonmail.com

Also in: Campaigns