Call out for participation in Sustainability on Sea Festival 2019

29th March 2019

The Sustainability on Sea (SOS) festival acts as a showcase for local projects inspiring local residents, young and old, to learn, explore and try the latest in all things environmentally friendly, whilst also having fun.

After a successful pilot of SOS Festival in September 2018, Transition Town Hastings, along with other local partners, have started planning for this year.

The festival will take place between Saturday 21^st–Sunday 29^thSeptember 2019, tying in nicely with World Car Free Day (Sep 22) and culminating with an all-day Big Green Fair on the 29^th. The Green Fair will have stall holders, information stands, talks, activities for children and entertainment.

The theme this year will be What we can do, encouraging everyone to live more sustainably, in small or big ways.

We invite you to take part in one or all of the following ways:

Volunteer your time to help the festival team plan and run the festival.
Take part as an organisation, school, community group, church group, local project or business. Plan an activity that we can add to our programme.
Add an event or activity to the programme that you know is already happening.
Sign up as a stallholder, information stand or activity for the Big Green Fair.
Let us know of any burning ideas that you would like to try out as part of the festival.

How to get in touch

info@sustainabilityonsea.org.uk

SOS is a Transition Town Hastings project in partnership with Hastings Furniture Service, Energise Sussex Coast and the Bexhill and Hastings United Nations Association.

Visit the website to see last year’s programme and to find out more.www.sustainabilityonsea.org.uk

Hastings Trust Legacy Archive

10th November 2018

As the long-standing, local organisation The Hastings Trust draws to a close it’s now possible to view an online archive of the trust’s work. For over 30 years the trust worked with scores of local partners on hundreds of initiatives to improve the quality of life for people in Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea. The website is a record of that achievement and a resource for those who follow in it’s footsteps. Archive materials featuring 25 years of conservation, environmental improvements and regeneration work includes complete sets of newsletters and annual reviews plus a selection of photos, films, presentations and project documents that are free to download.

Visit the site.

Cohousing Talk presentation

13th May 2018

On May 11th Julian Howell gave a short talk about cohousing projects and a very clear ‘how to’ to help groups to get started. Julian Howell is a founder member of Sussex Cohousing a Brighton-based community in the making.

After the talk there was a lively discussion about what people were interested in doing locally. There was an interest in finding ways to live together in a supportive and collaborative way or living with a deeper connection to nature by sharing land. We hope the conversation continues and cohousing projects or land sharing projects can be realised in and around Hastings, a town where good quality affordable housing is hard to find.

Download Julian’s talk here:

About cohousing 2018 – Julian Howell

Sign up to the Hastings Cohousing discussion if you are interested in joining a conversation about cohousing in the Hastings area – a closed group on Groups.io.

New Economics Foundation have recently published this guide to help groups looking to build community-led, affordable housing development in their area overcome one of their greatest obstacles: acquiring land.

Help keep Hastings Pier in community ownership

9th May 2018

Friends of Hastings Pier have been pushed into a corner by an Administration process that is unsuitable for a community-owned asset. They have put forward alternative plans which are exciting and realistic but been told that they won’t take the bid seriously unless we have £1M available. That’s why they’re pushing this crowdfunder. Raising half a million pounds now from individuals and organisations will keep us ‘in the game’ and encourage other funders to invest alongside you to make our Pier a success.

Hastings Pier has been a beacon of community-led regeneration, a pioneer in the world of community shares, and an inspiration to community groups across the country. The hazard faced is not just for Hastings; if the People’s Pier fails perceptions of community ownership will be badly damaged, even though community ownership was never the problem and is definitely part of the solution.

Please help in any way you can – most obviously and most immediately by clicking the link and then spreading the word.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/fohp2018

Helps us win Tesco’s #BagsofHelp fund

9th February 2018

Our new project Meet you by the Mosaic has been shortlisted for a public vote in Tesco’s #BagsofHelp initiative!

We want to work with the local community and a local artist to develop a mosaic near the front of St Leonards Warrior Square station.

Please vote for Meet you by the Mosaic in stores during the months of March/April to help us secure a grant of up to £2,000.

New funds for our community garden

27th December 2017

Great news. We were successful in our application for a Sustainability & New Economy Grant from Quakers UK. We will receive £200 to help fund the development of our community garden at St Leonards Warrior Square station, specifically around the water collection.

There is no water supply close to the garden and we so for the past few years volunteers have been carrying buckets of water across the foot bridge to top up water needs over the spring and summer months. We’re really excited to be able to take control of the water supply by purchasing some large water butts for the north platform. These will allow volunteers to spend more time focusing on planning, designing and planting.

Green space for Ore Community Land Trust

25th October 2017

Ore Community Land Trust (OCLT) has a stated purpose of “Seeking to acquire land in the Upper Ore Valley to save and enhance urban woodland and green space for community use and to protect animal habitat”.

OCLT was set up in 2009 and is now registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). This widens their scope as they are keen to take on other green spaces and woodland in the Ore Valley, although their primary aim is to bring Speckled Wood into community ownership.

The organisation’s recent AGM reported the following activities:

1) HBC is planning to transfer the green spaces in the Ore Valley over to OCLT.
2) OCLT are in the process of buying a container as a volunteer base in Speckled Wood. They need more volunteers to support this.
3) OCLT are working with TCV to organise some green gyms in Speckled Wood. The first one will be for women.