Observer article June 2023
Last week the Hastings Labour cabinet discussed a report that sets out the current situation with Hastings United Football Club. They concluded that the current proposal to develop a new football stadium at Tile Kiln is not financially viable.
We have had to wait 6 months for a report which, while it usefully outlines the timeline so far for new councillors, still doesn’t set out a viable future for football or indeed a wider sports strategy for this town. Warm words from cabinet members about how much they love the football ground at Pilot Field is just not enough. It’s also disappointing that the football club were not consulted in the drafting of this report.
We are still waiting for the Hastings and Rother Playing Pitch Strategy which originally was due to be published and discussed at cabinet in March 2023, but has since disappeared off the forward plan. This would have been essential background information for this report. We cannot treat the Pilot Field as an isolated issue.
It’s essential we create a vision for sport across the town. We have some great assets like Active Hastings and many local sports clubs, but the wider picture is a mess. We have a football club at loggerheads with the council. Horntye Park Management Company is about to resubmit a planning application to build on the former cricket ground. And any discussion about a new leisure centre goes on behind closed doors, solely within the secretive Labour cabinet.
Meanwhile plans to build affordable homes on the former Harrow Lane playing fields have ground to a halt while buyers are sought for failing modular home builder Ilke who bought the land from the council in 2021.
The council is legally obliged to seek best value for any land disposals. What assessment was made of Ilke’s financial health before allowing them to buy the land at Harrow Lane? An online search reveals that they have been loss-making ever since their start up by a private equity firm, TDR Capital, in 2017. In 2021 they lost £32.5 million; last year’s losses totalled £41.3 million. The trend is not good. Surely these huge figures should have rung alarm bells at the council? What risk assessments were carried out before selling the playing fields to this company?
Ilke is based in Yorkshire. Here in East Sussex we have a respected local modular builder and last week the Green group of councillors went to visit their factory in Newhaven. A flourishing company, they source the majority of their materials from local suppliers, employ local workers and have made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2025. They are due to build some affordable homes in West St Leonards later in the year, subject to planning permission. In Eastbourne and Lewes they are investigating building on small infill sites including old garages. We could be doing the same here in Hastings, where there are many small pockets of unused space. Small and local seems a more sustainable vision for addressing the housing crisis in a town like Hastings with limited building land.