Press statement Hastings Green Party – issued by Councillor Julia Hilton Green Group Leader.
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Green Leader Councillor Julia Hilton denounces Labour power grab
At last night’s Annual Council in Hastings, Labour turned its back on collaborative working and relied on the votes of a councillor recently expelled from the Conservative Party, now sitting as a member of the Reform UK Party, and the mayor’s casting vote to conduct a power grab of all chairs and vice chairs of committees at the council. Labour now controls the council with the support of the far right.
Labour also voted against the idea of sharing the mayoralty among the political groups, as happens in many other councils, turning down the proposal for Councillor Claire Carr as Green Deputy Mayor in favour of their own candidate, Councillor Heather Bishop. Councillor Margi O’Callaghan was elected unanimously as the new Mayor.
In her speech at Annual Full Council Green Leader Julia Hilton addressed Cllr Barnett, leader of the council. ‘In your last leader’s column in the Observer you talked about how all 32 councillors are here because we care about our town, its people and economy. But your actions this evening show that you don’t really care about the opinions and skills of the non-Labour members of this council and have returned to the old ways of working within your Labour cabal. It seems a short-sighted move to abandon all commitments to shared working and rely on the support of a councillor who belongs to a party with views diametrically opposed to your own.’
She went on to ask if there was any real commitment to improving governance when meetings to reform the constitution have been repeatedly cancelled at short notice, despite unanimous support for her motion calling for improved decision making back in December. ‘At the moment the only way to get information on key decisions like the future of St Mary in the Castle or what might happen to football in this town seems to be to force a motion to come to full council. This is no way to conduct decision making,’ she observed.
‘There is still no sight of an action plan to urgently turn round the council’s finances after a peer review by the Local Government Association 8 weeks ago.’
Councillor Hilton went on to challenge the lack of progress on a new tourism plan, or proper scrutiny of climate action targets and the ongoing uncertainty about the cost of the hotel the council plans to build on behalf of multinational company Whitbread. She said, ‘I fail to understand how this idea was ever supported by a council that professes to support the idea of community wealth building and strengthening the local economy where money stays in the town rather than being leached out to a multinational company who must have seen Hastings coming.’
The full speech can be heard here at 1 hr 55 mins in. Annual Council 24 May 2023 | Hastings Borough Council.
Notes
Hastings Council is made up of 15 Labour, 11 Conservative, 5 Green and 1 Reform councillor.