Hastings Old Town Residents Association
East Hill House
13 Tackleway
Hastings
East Sussex
TN34 3DE
Dick Edwards, Chairman
01424-437069 — dick@hotra.org.uk
For everyone living and working in the Old Town
Report Street Problems
Click here to go to Fix My Street, where you can report problems such as potholes, broken paving slabs and blinking street lights.
The year ahead for the Old Town
The June meeting of the Management Committee set out the priorities for HOTRA for the year ahead. These include parking, pavements, fire services, noise pollution and the cleanness (or otherwise) of the streets and beach. You can read the full program in the July Parish News by clicking here.
Old Town wins Best Walking Neighbourhood poll!
Hastings Old Town has won the Ramblers' Association's Best Walking Neighbourhood Award!
Anthony Slack, long-time Hastings Old Town resident, nominated the Old Town. He said: “Whether it’s simply to visit local shops and restaurants, to go to the doctors’ surgery or to the local cinema or theatre, or just to admire our historic buildings, walking is usually the best way to do it in the Old Town. The well maintained green spaces, the sea views, and the pleasant places to stop for a rest and to socialise, all combine to make Hastings Old Town a fantastic, walkable community. We’re delighted that the Old Town has been crowned as Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood.”
There is a petition to save the centre. Please sign it by clicking here
The Isabel Blackman Centre in Winding Street has been serving Hastings and nearby villages for generations. It is currently being expertly managed by Sussex Community Development Association. It opens 7 days a week and provides a vital link to the many senior citizens who go there. Some already pay a contribution to the costs.
East Sussex County Council (ESCC) want to save £10m from their £250m Adult Social Care Budget. If the IBC closes many elderly people will become isolated in their own homes. To meet their needs in other ways will cost more money. Their carers / family will lose their weekly respite time.
This is the fourth attempt by ESCC to stop meeting these vulnerable people's needs in the past 15 years, which is contemptable.
On July 23 a meeting of Labour-led Hastings Brorough Council called on ESCC to reconsider the closure, and criticised the level of evidence that the county council had produced to support the closure. You can read more in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer here.
HOTRA is actively campaigning to keep the centre open. Watch this page for updates.
Graffiti are not a new problem in the Old Town but in recent months there has been a blitz of tags on some of our walls. Hastings council will remove them if you complain – but only if they are on your property. Vivien Harrison has written a quick guide to notifying the council, which you can download by clicking here.