Southern Water
9th May 2024 / 10th May 2024 by juliahilton
Southern Water will be offering local businesses more than the company’s standard level of compensation for the massive disruption, in particular those who rely on the May Day weekend for a huge portion of their income. The Southern Water team should be thanked for their hard work on the ground to resolve this emergency but […]
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Hastings Observer Articles Local Elections
9th May 2024 / 9th May 2024 by juliahilton
At last week’s local elections, Hastings residents gave the local Green Party eight new councillors, bringing the total to twelve. We feel honoured by your trust and energised by the responsibility that entails. Throughout the campaign you told us you’d had enough of bickering between parties, disliked all negative campaigning and wanted us to work […]
Hastings Observer Articles
2nd March 2024 / 5th April 2024 by juliahilton
This has been a devastating week for some Hastings residents, who have had to leave their homes due to landslides in both Old Roar Gill and Caves Road. On Wednesday evening Deputy Leader Glenn Haffenden and I, along with other councillors and senior officers, met with residents who have been affected by the landslip at […]
20th February 2024 / 5th April 2024 by juliahilton
Next week we will finalise the budget for the council. The good news is that, thanks to hard work by officers to identify additional savings after years of government cuts to our budget, Hastings Borough Council is NOT going bankrupt. The situation is still challenging, requiring savings of £3.9 million because of the expenditure required […]
Local Elections
18th January 2024 / 5th April 2024 by juliahilton
Yesterday evening at an Extraordinary Full Council meeting, Green Group Leader Julia Hilton was voted in as Leader of the council to lead an interim administration until the local elections in May. Julia said: ‘This solution has been reached after lengthy discussions with all political groups. I had hoped to be able to form a […]
Uncategorised
5th January 2024 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
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 […]
If you live in Hastings and work in the public sector – eg the local council, or the fire service – then your pension may be propping up fossil fuel companies. In April 2016, thanks to campaigning by Divest East Sussex Group, Hastings became the first council in East Sussex to call on our County […]
In February 2019 Hastings declared a climate emergency thanks in part to pressure from Hastings Green Party. Other councils have taken a similar step. Now an independent agency, appropriately called ‘Climate Emergency UK’ and funded by a variety of charitable bodies and private donations, has quizzed councils across England and Wales to assess their progress. […]
15th December 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
The local Labour party has been riven by tensions for some time now with many former activists either being expelled or leaving as the party moves to the right. I am not surprised that half of the Labour councillors have finally decided to leave an increasingly autocratic Labour Party however their timing leaves much to […]
19th November 2023 / 20th March 2024 by juliahilton
Today we have launched our Crowdfunder to raise £10,000 to win big in May 2024 and become the largest group on Hastings Borough Council. We’ve grown so fast in the last two years and now we want to go even further, aiming to go from five councillors to at least twelve in May 2024. To do that […]
20th October 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Before and after photos of infill sites for housing in Eastboune Last Friday my councillor colleague Glenn Haffenden, organised a research trip to Eastbourne for the cross party Hastings Housing Taskforce to visit some exciting examples of modern energy efficient council housing using awkward sites like car parks, old light industrial units and old garages. […]
6th October 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Becca Horn will be the Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Hastings and Rye, offering a fresh and energetic alternative to the current two party race. Becca says “I am delighted and honoured to be selected to represent Hastings & Rye Green Party in the next General Election. I stood because I’m so disillusioned by […]
25th September 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Written by HUGH SULLIVAN for Hastings Independent. Original article : https://www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/articles/news/hotel-costs-soar-but-council-committed/ The construction of a Premier Inn hotel on the former Cornwallis Street car park site owned by Hastings Borough Council (HBC), politically controversial since it was first mooted in 2019, has run into major budgeting problems. A report to cabinet issued by the council’s Chief […]
Observer article for September After the news this week of Owens shutting its doors for who knows how long due to health and safety concerns, and the fact that the council is seemingly locked in to a commitment to build a hotel for a huge international chain, whether it covers its long term costs or […]
Across the country our public infrastructure is at breaking point. In Hastings one of the starkest indicators of that is our broken housing market which is about to break the council’s finances with a forecast spend this year of £5.6 million on temporary accommodation. It is surprising then that one of the council’s responses to […]
24th July 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
The world is witnessing a colossal decline in global biodiversity, with one million animal and plant species threatened with extinction. In 2019, a State of Nature report by the UK State of Nature Partnership presented an overview of how UK wildlife is faring, looking back over 50 years of monitoring. It found the UK to […]
15th June 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
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 […]
25th May 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Press statement Hastings Green Party – issued by Councillor Julia Hilton Green Group Leader. Contact 07714443221 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 […]
24th May 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Observer Article May 2023 Last week the water companies of England issued what seemed to be a coordinated and belated apology for repeated sewage spills and pledged to invest £10bn this decade in an attempt to quell public anger over pollution in seas and rivers. It sounded good until discovering that all this will be […]
25th April 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
As this year’s 40th anniversary Jack in the Green celebrations start this weekend so does the local tourist season, but this has been a matter of much discussion and concern in the town recently. Hastings Borough Councils finances have stood on a cliff edge for some time, due to a perfect storm of poor decision […]
24th March 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
In the cold sunshine of a February afternoon The Stade Open Space is filled with the beautiful sound of Ukrainian songs as we stand together with those who came to Hastings to seek safety from the war in Ukraine a year ago. In my hand is a placard made by one of the Ukrainian children, […]
24th February 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Observer Article February 2023. This winter has been extremely tough for many people and there has been an explosion in demand for help accessing services and funding. It is heartening to see Green councillors coming up with innovative neighbourhood solutions to providing help and support. Last week saw the first Keep Well and Warm event […]
30th January 2023 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Observer article Jan 31 2023 January has been quite a month for Hastings, with strikes, fire and flooding reminding us of the reason for investment in the public sector, both workers and infrastructure. Our sewage and drainage systems are not up to the task of dealing with extreme rainfall events, which are likely to be […]
24th December 2022 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
For many years Hastings Borough Council was run by a majority Labour administration. At the elections last May that authority was lost, and the council is now in ‘no overall control’. Until a few weeks ago Labour and the Greens ran the council as an alliance, but interference from Labour’s National Executive put paid to […]
