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County Hall in Lewes. The county council is not only geographically distant but its decisions on matters affecting Hastings often appear at odds with local thinking.

Saying goodbye to County?

The notion of a unitary authority is looming. Would Hastings and Rother be better off combining to manage their own affairs, including activities currently run by East Sussex County Council? HOT contributor Bea Rogers weighs up the pros and cons in what we hope will kick off a much needed debate.

Well, Brighton and Hove did it! They defected from East Sussex County Council and set up their own unitary authority. Is it about time for Hastings and Rother to get together to leave the county behind and manage our own local affairs?

The case for:

  • The county hall and all its employees are located in Lewes, the far western corner of the county, while we are in the far East. They also live in the western part, commuting to Lewes. When it comes to passing a particularly nasty pothole or dealing with non-functioning “road works” they won’t be passing it on a regular basis, or being reminded that something needs to be done.
  • Irritation with the county council’s non-action, especially at street level, is reaching record highs here. Social media locally is full of complaints and angry comments about the state of our roads and pavements, and supposedly pedestrian areas overrun by cars.
  • The County has cut the budget for street repairs in Hastings and Rother.
  • People in our area are very confused about who does what. Street lights? County. Street names? HBC or Rother. Parking enforcement? County. Street bins? Local. Bus stops are local, the timetables are produced by the county. And so on…
  • This also leads to people feeling there is nobody in charge, and a lot of anger: “What is ‘the Council’ doing about this??”
  • There is an even stronger case in Rother, where there are three levels of local authority – they could be reduced to two.
  • Most of our council tax goes nowhere near locally-run services. The big payment is to the county, followed by police and the fire and rescue services. We need much more accountability for this.
  • The present County Hall is about to be replaced. Guess what? Elsewhere in Lewes.
  • There is an even stronger case in Rother, where there are three levels of local authority – they could be reduced to two.
  • By all accounts the powers that be in County Hall are very dismissive of our concerns because many of our county councillors are from the “wrong” party. Call me old-fashioned, but what happened to the idea of representing everybody equally once you are elected? Or distributing your service equally to all regardless of class or geographical distance? Yes, they treat us as the poor relations and this has to stop.

The case against:

  • It would be messy. This kind of change always is.
  • Some County staff would need to relocate to our area, always a difficult process. Some might simply resign their jobs. This would mean more recruitment locally – no bad thing from our point of view.
  • Social services and education would have to come here; could be quite an upheaval.
  • Politically, many county councillors representing Hastings and Rother may not want to give up their positions.
  • There are county council elections in May. What about that then?

The solution:

  • Hastings and Rother councils could co-operate with each other a lot more in any case, and could develop more shared services.
  • Politically, it could be interesting. In Hastings, both Greens and Labour have little influence at County Hall and might want to think about this. Rother has many more Independent councillors, who might take the view that simplifying local services would be in local people’s best interests. It is possible that this could be an issue for the political parties in next May’s County elections.
  • Brighton Council might be happy to give us the benefit of their experience. The first port of call perhaps.

Let’s talk about it. At the very least it might prompt county councillors to take our area more seriously. I once went to a focus group of Hastings and Rother people called by the County. At the end we were asked: “Which services do you think the County does well?” It could have been from not knowing what they do, or having nothing good to say about it, but the awkward silence in the room was deafening.

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Posted 19:44 Wednesday, Oct 23, 2024 In: Local Government

10 Comments

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  1. DAR

    I would generally support the idea: there’s far too much confusion about which authority is currently responsible for what. Also, I agree with David Stevenson about replacing VAT with a local sales tax.

    Comment by DAR — Monday, Oct 28, 2024 @ 15:44

  2. Bernard Brown

    Two quick points. Many would think Brighton & Hove is less than successful. Yes there needs to be a review but in ESCC it is the Officers, not elected Councillors, who are in control. Who will be in charge of any review? Remember Officers were responsible for the Queensway Gateway fiasco.

    Comment by Bernard Brown — Monday, Oct 28, 2024 @ 08:21

  3. Stephanie Gaunt

    Yes, the change would be a mess, yet it probably would be worth it. As I see it, those in Lewes have.very little understanding of the realities of life in Hastings and Rother – decisions are taken without even taking account of hills… if I lived in Rother, I would be even more fed-up, with such a split area. It would be interesting to see the political shale of the new unitary authority!

    However, even with a merger, the new unitary authority would still be quite small in national terms, and lacking in political clout.

    Comment by Stephanie Gaunt — Monday, Oct 28, 2024 @ 07:21

  4. David Stevenson

    It certainly seems more sensible that local services are administered by local people who live and / or work in the area. It would reduce the confusion over who is responsible for what. However, things will never be perfect until local government is separated from central government and local councillors are given the freedom to run their Councils, without the constraints placed on them by remote MPs in Westminster. Now that we have left the EU we have the opportunity to scrap VAT and replace it with a local sales tax, with all the proceeds staying in the area. Then this country will be nearer to being a democracy.

    Comment by David Stevenson — Friday, Oct 25, 2024 @ 14:35

  5. Nick Terdre

    Bronwen: we’re happy to provide the platform but it was Bea who started this debate. Hopefully some politicians will also join in!

    Comment by Nick Terdre — Friday, Oct 25, 2024 @ 09:22

  6. Bea

    There would not be a net loss of jobs. Existing staff members would be able to commute to Hastings/ Rother if they want to keep their present jobs. Otherwise the jobs would be available to people here.

    Comment by Bea — Friday, Oct 25, 2024 @ 07:41

  7. Paul Burns

    It is rather strange that the citizens of Rye travel through Hastings to get to the offices of Rother District Council in Bexhill, not to mention Lewes.

    If we are going to have multiple levels of local government (e.g Bexhill Town Council, Rother District Council and East Sussex County Council) I would prefer to eliminate the most remote one and beef up the town councils and their rural equivalents while an expanded dictrict council provides most services.

    Comment by Paul Burns — Thursday, Oct 24, 2024 @ 16:50

  8. Bronwen Griffiths

    It certainly sounds like something we should be discussing and perhaps working towards. There are never easy solutions and councils are cash strapped due to lack of central funding from government. Austerity has been terrible for local services. So a rather cautious yes from me. Very glad HOT has started this debate.

    Comment by Bronwen Griffiths — Thursday, Oct 24, 2024 @ 15:22

  9. colin edward foy

    Local services are always much better. Today, we pay more rates with less action and services. Obviously, Hastings and Rother cannot go on like this, so an independent Council should be able to control the finances better?

    Comment by colin edward foy — Thursday, Oct 24, 2024 @ 11:27

  10. Jim Newham

    This is nonsense. What it means is hundreds of people will lose their jobs for no good reason.

    Comment by Jim Newham — Wednesday, Oct 23, 2024 @ 21:31

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