Hastings Observer Articles
24th October 2022 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Observer article for October 2022 – Julia Hilton By the time you read this article, Hastings Borough Council will have voted on whether to bring back in house the maintenance of our town’s astonishing 690 hectares of green space. For the last decade the care of our parks, gardens and wild land has been contracted […]
Read more »
Local Elections
17th October 2022 / 24th July 2023 by juliahilton
An open letter from Hastings Green Party to the people of Hastings and St Leonards. Hastings Green Party is ending the cooperative alliance it formed with Labour to run Hastings Council. After Greens won three additional council seats in May 2022’s local elections and took the council into No Overall Control[1], Green and Labour Group leaders agreed […]
24th September 2022 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Observer Article – September 2022 One thing I have learnt, in all the wall to wall coverage of the Queen’s life this week, is that as well as having a great sense of humour she was a true matriarch, quietly wielding a lot of soft power behind the scenes. Matriarchal power is the kind exercised […]
24th August 2022 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and yet this summer we are facing both an energy and a water crisis. A decent home that provides refuge from both extreme heat and cold and access to food and clean water are basic human rights and yet we are facing a winter where […]
Uncategorised
26th July 2022 / 26th July 2022 by juliahilton
Make 20mph the default speed on our residential streets across Hastings and St Leonards where we live, work, shop, play and learn. by Zelly Restorick In St Leonards, Amanda Jobson – a newly elected Green Councillor for Gensing Ward – was listening to residents’ concerns last spring about speeding. Amanda says: “I’ve lived here for 15 […]
19th July 2022 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Just too hot It’s been a tough week in Hastings if you struggle with the heat. Hastings missed the worst of the UK’s first “red heatwave” warning. Even so, Friends of the Earth research shows over 16,000 households in Hastings could be vulnerable to extreme heat. Often these will be the same households who suffer […]
24th June 2022 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
First of all, thank you to the Observer for offering me this weekly column on all things Green. I will use this space to celebrate all the community initiatives that are already under way to green our town and reduce our carbon footprint, but also to issue an urgent call to action. We need the […]
27th May 2022 / 27th May 2022 by juliahilton
The Green group of councillors on Hastings Council has made the decision to enter into a co-operative alliance with Labour to run the council. Hastings Borough Council was left in No Overall Control following the 5 May local elections. Greens won three seats from Labour, meaning that the 32-seat council now consists of 15 Labour, […]
16th May 2022 / 19th March 2024 by juliahilton
Hastings Greens celebrate May 2022 local election wins with co-leader Adrian Ramsay @Stuart Griffiths Hastings Green Party made spectacular gains in the May 2022 local elections, winning three seats from Labour. Central St Leonards, Gensing and Tressell all fell to the Greens, whilst in Castle Becca Horn came within a hair’s breadth of taking a […]
22nd March 2022 / 22nd March 2022 by juliahilton
After the Labour Party issued a leaflet this weekend making misleading claims about the Green Party, I am making a public commitment as Green Group leader that I and all our candidates will be running a positive and honest election campaign, focussing on the skills and energy of our candidates and our ideas for change […]
We thought you might like to know what we have both been up to since Claire joined the Greens in December and we became a Green Group on Hastings Council. Council Budget At the recent full council meeting to agree the budget, two of our amendments were supported. One to make sure climate risk was […]
21st March 2022 / 23rd March 2022 by juliahilton
Caroline Lucas MP visited St Leonards on 19 March to launch Hastings Green Party’s campaign for the 2022 local elections. She met with members and supporters, and spent time door knocking around Central St Leonards, reporting a very positive response on the doorstep. Caroline talked about the impact a Green presence can have on local […]
8th February 2022 / 8th February 2022 by juliahilton
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer visited Hastings on February 3-4 to support the party’s campaign for the upcoming local elections. Carla was elected as co-leader of the Green Party in October 2021, alongside Adrian Ramsay. She is a councillor in Bristol, where the Green Party made huge gains in the May 2021 local elections, and […]
3rd December 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
Hastings Borough Council’s Labour councillor for Castle ward has announced that she has defected to the Green Party. Councillor Claire Carr, who was elected to HBC in May 2021, says, “I have reached the conclusion that I will never be treated fairly or have my voice properly heard on behalf of the residents of Castle […]
29th November 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
By JULIA HILTON, Green Party councillor for Tressell and Old Hastings, and TONY COLLINS, Green Party campaigner The news is full of environmental doom as COP 26 unrolls. You may feel anger, despair, or confusion at the way our politicians are failing to seize the initiative. We need our leaders to lead, recognising that time […]
On 4, 11 18 November 2021, Cllr Julia Hilton was a panelist on a series of United Nations Association webinars during COP 26. https://www.facebook.com/unaclimateoceans/videos/858652611489618
6th November 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
Julia Hilton reported on the work she is doing to support local residents in Old Town Hastings and Roddy Crockett from Sustrans gave a presentation and workshop on how we change priorities on our streets. It was great to see both local Labour and Conservative councillors turning up to hear Roddy Crockett from Sustrans. The […]
31st October 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
Keen to encourage local people to get involved in decision-making about transport choices, Sustrans, the walking and cycling charity, has arranged a meeting to discuss these issues on Saturday 6 November. Julia Hilton, Green Party councillor for Old Hastings and Tressell, explains the background. Hastings has one of the lowest percentages of car ownership in […]
21st October 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
On 21 October 2021, Julia Hilton was a panelist on the ITV meridian politics show The Last Word. Panelists were asked ‘who should foot the bill for climate change?’. Cllr Julia Hilton said there will be costs, but unless those costs are addressed soon, they’ll become all the more significant if we postpone the awkward decisions.
16th October 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
Julia proposed a motion calling for the government to introduce a UK wide Carbon Tax combined with a citizens Carbon Dividend to make polluters pay. This was seconded by Councillor Heather Bishop and supported by Labour councillors but not the Conservatives. The motion ‘Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere continue to rise despite international agreements. Whilst targets […]
12th October 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
The Greens proposed a motion calling on East Sussex County Council (ESCC) to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill(CEE). This follows a u-turn by the Tories at the last minute, having said they would support the motion. A last minute amendment torpedoes support for the CEE bill after a ‘climate fudge’ cake was delivered to […]
17th August 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
Julia spoke at the Clean Water Action Group protest on 16 August. Read her speech below. As we know the disgraceful record of Southern Water over many years makes for grim reading and as we can see by the turn out today, people have had enough of water companies putting private profit before clean water […]
8th August 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
On August 8th 2021, over fifty people gathered at SeaChange’s North Queensway site to say no to their business park plans. Seachange’s proposals would damage the precious nature reserve at Marline Woods. Video link here.
12th July 2021 / 3rd December 2021 by juliahilton
Press release Hastings and Rye Green Party [1] Monday 12 July 2021 Contact: 07565 967250 Image available: https://tinyurl.com/x225apxx. Greens protest North Queensway business park HASTINGS GREENS CALL FOR FULL INVESTIGATION OF SEACHANGE SUSSEX Regeneration company has ‘utterly failed on its own terms’, says councillor, as party calls for North Queensway planning application to be refused […]