Green View Column – January 2024
2024 presents big challenges but also opportunities for the council, our town and the whole country as we head for both local and general elections this year.
At the last council meeting in December an outline budget was passed which commits the council to making radical changes and huge savings to survive the financial burden imposed by the escalating homelessness crisis. The leader of the council spoke passionately of the potential power of a united council to improve the town, stressing the importance of a consensual approach to local politics.
It was a surprise therefore to hear the next day that six of the cabinet of seven, including both the leader and the deputy leader, were resigning from the Labour Party and would now stand as Hastings Independents. This leaves the council in the hands of four different groups, none of them with the numbers to control the council. There are now ten Conservatives, eight Hastings Independents, five Labour and five Greens, as well as three other independents and one Reform councillor.
This irresponsible decision leaves the council in a fragile state and currently rudderless. How can the current leader and cabinet still have the moral authority to lead the council now they no longer belong to the party that elected them to those positions?
This decision does however create an opportunity for the town to move away from the cabinet system towards a committee based structure that allows a more consensual form of politics to develop locally, something the former Labour leader of the council claims he wants to see. We have long called for a move to a committee system where all councillors have a stake in decision-making. The current instability has only made this more essential.
A unity cabinet would be a step in this direction. All four parties could use this short period before the local elections in May to come together to form a new way of working – a rainbow cabinet where all parties have equal power and responsibility.
Not everything is grim, however. Here are two current examples of positive developments in Hastings:
On 27 January at Priory Meadow, residents will be able to help shape the plans for greening our town centre, part of wider aspirations to build on all the great greening projects that are already going on across the town.
In December I was pleased to be able to take part in the first gathering of the Hastings Housing Alliance, a network of local housing coops, community-led housing, and homeless charities. This will be co-designing – in cooperation with the council – a housing strategy for Hastings that has community-led housing at its heart. This is a great example of how the council can become more of an enabler, creating a town where everyone can flourish, knowing they have that basic human right: a safe, warm and secure home.