Respect Hastings

Many people are still worried about anti-social behaviour and low level crime like vandalism, litter and flytipping. Respect Hastings means everyone respecting the environment where the live and keeping it clean; respecting their neighbours and not causing nuisance and disturbance. It means all of us respecting one another and our right to live our lives as we choose.

The Labour government’s Respect plans gives additional powers to tackle nuisance including the power to evict anti-social families whether they are tenants or owner-occupiers.

The town has gained the Safer Business Awards as a safe place to visit and shop in. We will work to get the Safer Socialising Award given for safe places to visit in the evenings. The council and police worked with the pubs and clubs to successfully develop Bar Watch where anyone guilty of aggression is barred from all the pubs and clubs in the town centre.

The council now issues licenses for establishments selling alcohol. Local residents have the chance to comment on each one. A Labour led council will encourage local people to keep diaries and to act as witnesses if any pubs ignore the conditions that are attached to their license on noise, hours etc.

The Labour-led council employs the anti-social behaviour unit who deal with Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. A labour council will make sure these are accompanied by support orders to deal with the causes of the individual’s misbehaviour, including parenting orders.

Labour made Hastings one of the first towns outside London to take on the DVLA’s powers to remove not just abandoned but untaxed cars. Now abandoned cars are removed within 24 hours of being reported. A Labour council will take the further step of removing uninsured cars from the streets as part of making Hastings safer.

Labour is committed to making the town cleaner and has put extra money into the council’s budget to clean up areas which are unacceptable. With Labour the street wardens have been given the power to issue on the spot fines for litter and dog fouling. A Labour councili will extend tht to other environmental offences.

Labour promises:

To lead Respect Hastings campaign

To rigorously enforce the street drinking ban and ensure action is taken against off-licenses that persistently sell to street drinkers.

To take on the powers to remove uninsured cars from the streets.

To work with local residents to make sure the conditions imposed licensed premises are strictly adhered to.

To give street wardens the powers to fine anyone spotted engaged in graffiti, vandalism or fly-tipping.
To make sure Anti-Social Behaviour Orders are accompanied by individual support orders

Regeneration

Hastings and St Leonards are being transformed. A Labour government working with a Labour MP and a Labour-led council has brought substantial sums into the borough for its regeneration and revival – and it’s working.

Four years ago Tourism South East found that the image outsiders had of Hastings was one of dereliction and decay. Now they say it is one of the towns in the region people want to visit.

Last year the Daily Mirror wrote of the town: “Hard work by the locals, plus massive private and public investment has seen it rise, phoenix-like from the ashes.”

Just think back what has happened to Hastings in the last four to five years. We can now boast a University Centre, offering higher education locally for the first time. We now have a modern railway station providing a shiny new gateway to the town, the Creative Media Centre mark one and the mark two in Robertson Street, the new Innovation Centre at Churchfields and expansion taking place iin the Priory Meadow.

Work is underway on the millennium community housing projecst in Ore Valley and on the Marina pavilion and will soon start on the Havelock Road Gap site and on a new business park off Queensway. And the housing renewal programme iin Central St Leonards continues.

There is no other town of our size in the country with so much going on that’s what labour has meant for Hastings.

A Town to be Proud of

Hastings has to regenerate but it will not be at the expense of the special character and charm of the town. Labour will continue with its programme of conservation and restoration that has been so important for key buildings along the seafront, in the town centre and St Leonards. We are especially committed to the restoration of the Regency Arcade and the Crescent at Pelham and believe this must be an integral part of any substantial redevelopment of that area.

Labour’s decorative lighting scheme has brought a modern, tasteful dimension to the tradition of seaside lights. Now the pier, the White Rock Theatre and George Street are lit up too.

Labour has committed the council to a percentage for art which means any new major building scheme in the town has to proved an additional 1% of the money spent for public art.

Labour knows our town has a rich tradition of art and culture and local history. We are committed to making these even more prominent. The Labour council enabled the South coast Artists group to take over the foyer of St Mary in the Castle. The annual Coastal Currents arts festival was started under Labour and we will ensure it continues and develops. Labour will also work to ensure there are more artists’ workspaces for local art to flourish.

Labour promises to:

To develop a financially sustainable long-term future for St Mary in the Castle

To ensure Pelham Crescent and Arcade are restored

To create a proper Gateway feature for the Old Town
To hold a competition for a major public art feature in the Town Centre.

A Greener Town

With our large Country park and formal areas like Alexandra Park, Hastings has more green space per person than any similar town. We also have some of the best green spaces and Labour is committed to keeping it that way.

Labour oversaw the outstanding restoration of Alexandra park which has now won the prestigious green flag award two years running. The Labour-led council is now working towards the same restoration of St Leonards Gardens. We are determined to win green flag status for all our significant green spaces.

We are also committed to the development of Pebsham countryside park, where the waste tip local residents have had to put up with for decades can be transfored into an enjoyable open space.

As an environmentally aware town we must push up the recycling rates. The Labour-led council has more than doubled recycling already. Now most of the town will be moving to wheelie bins and recycling containers which will mean everyone can participate in making Hastings greener.

Labour promises:

To increase our recycling rate to 25% with doorstep collection of recyclables for every home.
To achieve green flag status for Alexandra park and our other parks.

Who ya gonna call? Grotbusters!

Do you remember Hastings seafront before Labour took control of the council the run-down buildings? The Regent, The Marlborough, the Queen’s Hotel and others?

Now there is not one derelict building on the seafront because Labour was prepared to get stuck in where other parties had just stood and watched the town decline.

Up in Whitley Bay local people sent a special calendar to their North Tyneside councillors with a different derelict building for each month. What town’s example are they demanding should be followed? Hastings.

With Labour Hastings council has tog tough on eyesores. More money has been put in to employ extra enforcement staff (‘grotbusters’) and if owners have not improved their buildings they have been taken to court and fined. In a few cases the council has done the work and charged the owners for the privilege. Attention is currently turned to Marine Court.

Labour promises:

To step up the campaign against derelict buildings throughout the town and to use all the powers at its disposal to clean up Hastings and St Leonards, including the compulsory purchase of premises whose owners refuse to act.

Who ya gonna call? Grotbusters!

Do you remember Hastings seafront before Labour took control of the council the run-down buildings? The Regent, The Marlborough, the Queen’s Hotel and others?

Now there is not one derelict building on the seafront because Labour was prepared to get stuck in where other parties had just stood and watched the town decline.

Up in Whitley Bay local people sent a special calendar to their North Tyneside councillors with a different derelict building for each month. What town’s example are they demanding should be followed? Hastings.

With Labour Hastings council has tog tough on eyesores. More money has been put in to employ extra enforcement staff (‘grotbusters’) and if owners have not improved their buildings they have been taken to court and fined. In a few cases the council has done the work and charged the owners for the privilege. Attention is currently turned to Marine Court.

Labour promises:

To step up the campaign against derelict buildings throughout the town and to use all the powers at its disposal to clean up Hastings and St Leonards, including the compulsory purchase of premises whose owners refuse to act.

A Home for Everyone


Labour is committed to ensuring everyone has a decent home to live in. Hastings has the youngest population in Sussex so we need new homes and especially new affordable homes to meet their needs. We need more socially rented homes but also more shared ownership homes allowing people to put at least one foot on the ladder of owner occupation.

The town also has more than its fair share of poor quality housing, especially among privately rented flats. A Labour council will strictly enforce the labour government’s new scheme where every house in multiple occupation has to get a license from the local council by guaranteeing a decent standards. In Central St Leonards and Castle wards Labour will introduce special tougher conditions before issuing licenses. A Labour council will employ extra staff to manage licensing and inspect properties.

Labour promises:

To extend the housing renewal area currently only in Central St Leonards to include Castle Ward (the ward that includes Hastings town centre).

To increase the proportion of affordable housing required on new housing developments.

To implement empty dwelling management orders allowing the council to compulsorily lease properties left long-term empty by their owners.

Jobs for everyone

Labour is committed to ensuring that the full benefits of economic regeneration are felt by the local people who need it the most. Too many of our people are without work and too many in work are on inadequate wages.

The Labour-led council has developed a construction charter where building firms will be expected to employ local people and offer training and apprenticeships. The council has examined what the obstacles to employment are and will work with other organisations to make sure the basic skills, such as childcare etc are being tackled. A Labour council will work with the new Hastings college to make sure young people gain the skills needed for new jobs developing in the town.

The labour-led council has worked with the Hastings fishermen to maintain the fleet that makes up par of the very essence of Hastings. We are committed to rebuilding the Harbour Arm.

Labour promises:

To make employment for local people a central part of all regeneration schemes.

Getting Around Hastings

Transport is still not good enough in Hastings, either to and from the town or around it. But the Labour-led council is proud to have extended the Labour government’s new policy of free bus travel for the over-60s. The council only had to introduce free travel within the borough boundary. However, it has brought in free travel for journeys throughout the country.

Low floor buses and raised kerbs have helped older and disabled travellers and bus use has gone up by 7% in the last couple of years. But Stagecoach and the County Council as the transport authority still have a long way to go to meet the transport needs of all local people. The new bus users forum set up to advise the councils on bus services will help.

Labour will also be increasing cycling opportunities and intends to link the seafront cycle route with Bexhill seafront by opening up the beach track at Bulverhythe for cyclists.

On the roads the Hastings/Bexhill link road and the dualling of the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury are all on the list of committed highway schemes and should be completed in the next four years.

Labour promises;

To continue to press the County Council and Stagecoach to improve bus services

To introduce a quality bus partnership with teeth

To continue to lobby for improved road and rail links to Hastings
To extend cycle routes in the borough.

Olympic Hastings

As the country gears up for the London Olympics, the Labour-led council has pledged itself to get Hastings residents of all ages active. Five multi-use games areas have been constructed around the town and a team of staff employed to organise activities around them. This has built on the success of the council’s Sport for U team. Now there is the Active Hastings squad.

Taking opportunities to get Active Hastings out to local young people is also part of giving them positive alternatives to causing nuisance around their area.

But we need more. Working with Health Service organisations organised walks are held for older residents and GP referrals to gyms for those with heart problems.

Labour is committed to top class sports facilities to encourage more people to get active and to offer the best to our top sports performers. Our indoor sports facilities are past their best just when the Olympics could be encouraging more people to participate.

Labour promises:
To build a brand new sports centre to replace Summerfields and Falaise before the Olympics.

Listening to you

With Labour more people locally have been involved in discussing how the town should run than ever. With the Labour government’s neighbourhood renewal money for parts of Hastings, neighbourhood forums have been set up and in Greater hollington a neighbourhood management scheme.

The Labour-led council has paid for staff to make sure the Young Person’s Council runs. It has set up and staffed the Seniors’ Forum so local people of all ages can have their say.

The town has been divided into four geographical areas to enable residents throughout the borough to get involved in shaping services to meet the particular needs of their community.

Labour doesn’t just talk about community involvement, it has delivered it.

Labour promises:

To continue involving local people in deciding how services should be delivered in their area with action plans for each quarter of the town.

One too many councils

In Hastings we have two councils – Hastings Borough Council responsible for housing, leisure, regeneration, recycling etc and East Sussex County Council responsible for social services, road and pavement repairs, schools etc.

Local people often get confused which council is responsible for which service. And although Hastings collects the council tax, 70% of it goes straight off to Lewes to the county council.
Our town gets a worse deal by being part of a wealthier county. The government gives a grant to Hastings Borough Council based on the needs of the town, but when it gives grants to East Sussex the extra needs of Hastings get lost. If Hastings Borough Council took on all the services that East Sussex provides then the people of the town would benefit from those additional government grants across all the things local government provides.
National government is looking to change local government so across the country there are only unitary councils providing all services – so locally there would be one council not two.
Labour believes that council should be Hastings Borough which is closer and more accessible to local people.

Labour promises:

To campaign for a unitary Hastings council

The Arts
Liberal Democrats believe that the Arts should be a main drive of the town’s regeneration process.

St Mary in the Castle can survive and thrive as an Arts Cenre in its own right. Liberal Democrats do not accept that the future of St Mary in the Castle is dependent upon building on the beach opposite.

Liberal Democrats have a full range of local policies.

Leisure

Leisure facilities must be available across the Borough not limited to areas of deprivation. Lib Dems are determined that students of the new colleges have easy access, where they need it, to those sports and leisure opportunities which schools previously provided.

Tourism

Liberal Democrats want Hastings and St. Leonards to become a yet more attractive place to visit for the people of all tastes and backgrounds.

We work for a vibrant sea-front from East to West connected by a sustainable sea-front transport service.

Liberal Democrats oppose further attempts to build a giant Visitor Centre/Fish Restaurant, etc., on the Coach and Lorry park. We want a new Tourism Information Centre, Toilets and Police office on a scale which will allow for community open space and some car parking.

Winkle Island should be made more attractive.

The Coach park should not be moved to Bulverhythe.

St. Mary in the Castle might be considered as an alternative site for a Tourist Information Centre.

Burton St. Leonards should be promoted far more actively.
The Old Bathing Pool site should not be abandoned on the vague promise of yet another Seaspace ‘masterplan’.

Housing

Liberal Democrats believe that everyone deserves a decent and appropriate home which is environmentally sustainable.

Empty properties must be brought back into use.

The private rented sector needs careful management and regulation to ensure good standards of accommodation are maintained.

Green spaces must not be sacrificed to unproven housing demands.

Social housing to rent remains a priority for new provision. We will work with our partners in this sector to achieve good quality, affordable housing for thise unable to access the private market.

A decent home for all

Education

The Liberal Democrats were the only political party in Hastings to be fully behind our schools in their fight to Save Our Sixth Forms. A famous victory was won over those determined to ignore public opinion. Lib Dems are proud to have worked with schools, parents, governors and students. Only we can be trusted to defend our schools.

We oppose Tony Blair’s dreams of privatising the education system. Lib Dems support a first class education for every young person. We believe in the ethos of Lifelong Education.

We oppose top-up and tuition fees.

Liberal Democrats support the lowering of the voting age to 16.

We seek for Hastings a real university of international status.
Lib Dems think it a mistake to concentrate all higher educational facilities in the town centre. We must protect our secondary schools and guard against exploitation of the land they occupy.

Transport
Liberal Democrats believe in sustainable, clean, efficient and affordable public transport.

The current bus partnership is a dismal failure. We support legally binding contracts with operators – put passengers first.

We are committed to the Bus Users forum.

Liberal Democrats support a sustainable transport system along our seafront, such as a trolleybus or tramway link. We will fight for this to be included in the Council’s Seafront Strategy.

Following the Government’s rejection of the Hastings By-Pass, Lib Dems recognise that the proposed Link Road is a cheaper option designed to appease the strong lobby demanding access to Rother District’s housing and industrial land.

We accept that an alternative must be found to the Bexhill Road chaos. We will not however, accept any link road route through the flood plain or without a connection to the A21.

Honesty
In 2004 you elected a ‘hung’ council – one with no one party in control – but honestly have you seen any difference? On almost all issues the Tories have voted with labour, leaving the Liberal Democrats as the only real opposition.

Liberal Democrats are honest enough to say that regeneration does no solve all our problmens. We support sympathetic regeneration, sympathetic to our rich and varied architectural and landscape heritage. We welcome development that enhances our town and employment in it but not at the price of blighting that heritage.
Liberal Democrats will not accept second best.

Fairness
Council Tax must go. Millions suffer, especially pensioners and those on fixed income, as every year council Tax, based as it is on out-dated property values, rises by more than inflation.

Liberal Democrats in touch through-out the year – not just at election time.

This tax must be replaced by a local tax based on the ability to pay.

Whilst Council Tax remains, we will seed to bring forward an alternative Liberal Democrat budget which provides for a Council Tax rise no greater than inflation. Local residents will be surveyed so that you can say what your priorities are.

Putting People First
Lib Dems will camaipaign to:

Restore democracy to the Council destroyed by New Labour’s cynical abouse of the Cabinet system;

Replace culture of secrecy/subterfuge adopted by our Council with one of open government;
Keep all councillors fully informed not just the ‘chosen few’.

Improving Tourism for Everyone:

Hastings Conservatives will:

Continue the drive to develop new opportunities in Tourism. We have the most recognised name in the world – 1066 – and we shall build on it
Work to increase bed-spaces in Hastings, attracting more people to visit our town and creating more job opportunities
Continue and develop the Grotbusters campaign, spreading it across the whole town

HASTINGS CONSERVATIVES – MAKING LIFE BETTER FOR EVERYONE

Improving Public Safety for Everyone:

Hastings Conservatives will:

· Make your safety a high priority, working for improved street lighting, CCTV where necessary and help make it safe for you walk the streets of our town without worry
· Make better use of the Wardens and Parking Attendants, providing a service for everyone in our town

Improving the Way We Work for Everyone:

Hastings Conservatives will:

Run the Council fairly for everyone in Hastings & St Leonards
Clamp down on all waste identified in the running of your Council
Make better use of the wide range of staff, facilities, offices and assets in your Council
KEEP COUNCIL TAX AS LOW AS POSSIBLE, WHILE PROVIDING THE SERVICES YOU NEED

Improving Housing Services for Everyone:

Hastings Conservatives will:

Fight for proper infrastructure to be provided, such as roads, schools, doctors, dentists and water supplies. before any large housing developments are approved
Continue the drive to reduce the use of B&Bs for homeless families. It will be a priority to house families who are without homes in decent housing
Continue the good work done by our Housing Services Department for All who need it

Improving Leisure for Everyone:

Hastings Conservatives will:

Work with everyone to develop high-quality leisure services throughout Hastings & St Leonards, including:
Possible water-based facilities with a housing element at the Bathing Pool site
A complete review of the future of Summerfields and Falaise Gardens Continue to work with the operator to provide a first-class venue at White Rock Theatre

Improving Regeneration for Everyone:

Hastings Conservatives will:

Continue the drive to regenerate Hastings & St Leonards, while not ignoring the forgotten areas such as West St Leonards, which have heard much but seen little
Develop a sustainable, sensible future for St Mary-in-the-Castle ensuring that its surroundings are treated sensitively
Work with our partners to continue bringing real jobs for local people in conjunction with increasing educational prospects Work with the County Council for the Link Road and its link to Queensway, without which there will only be half an improvement

Improving the Environment for Everyone:

Hastings Conservatives will:

• Develop our three Green Lungs (Pebsham Countryside Park, Alexandra Park and Hastings Country Park) as major facilities for everyone in the town
  
• Increase the number of households recycling waste to help our environment
  
• Better enforce the clampdown on Ecocrime such as littering, fly-tipping etc. Take a lead in the sensible use of water in these times of global warming