Blog

We rise from our beds and raise raised beds.

On the last weekend before the summer solstice we took delivery of a few tons of sleepers and began building raised beds. A more technically tricky task than most expected, we made steady progress realising Julie’s plans, making some changes as we went along. Many thanks to all involved, especially those who came both days to ensure that we made a great start to the central element of the community garden.

We will now be meeting every week, alternating between Saturdays (1.00pm – 4pm) and Sundays (10am – 1pm), the next being Sat 25th June.

Many thanks to Littlewood Fencing for supplying the wood.

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23rd June 2016
Bohemia Walled Garden Summer Garden Party

Bohemia Walled Garden is having a Summer Garden Party on Sunday 3rd July, 10am-4pm.

ADMISSION FREE! Includes music, tea and cakes, tombolas, plant sale and children’s activities.

It’s a beautiful community garden/allotment hidden inside Summerfields Wood.
The association recently had success with a Heritage Lottery Application. Read details of the project plan on Heritage Lottery Fund page

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16th June 2016
Can anyone smell garlic?

Down at the community garden we’ve uncovered a wealth of plants with culinary and medicinal uses.

Here’s Naomi, a garden volunteer, trying out the Rosy Garlic. The bulbils are like miniature Red Onions and are wrapped in a thin papery skin that peels away. It’s not uncommon to find it growing in the wild on the south coast, in rough or cultivated ground.

Our volunteers have taken some home to put in a vase or have a try at cooking with it.

Rosy Garlic

We’re compiling a page of all the wild plants we’ve discovered so far and what you might do with them.

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12th June 2016
Disappointment at a year’s delay to bus improvements
Bus lanes on the A259 between Glyne Gap and Bexhill Road will now not be completed until a year after the opening of the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (BHLR), Campaign for Better Transport – East Sussex has learned.

Speaking for the group, Derrick Coffee said:

‘Originally intended to begin construction in February, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has revealed that the start date for construction will now be next October. This is bad news for the two towns as delay is likely to lead to:
- lower take-up of the bus as a more sustainable means to travel
- traffic beginning to grow back on Bexhill Road – taking advantage of the lower traffic levels
- deterioration of air quality
- higher climate change gas emissions
- greater unhealthy ‘car dependency’
- delayed advantages for cyclists who would gain by using the bus lanes
The bus lanes, with better bus services, were promised in 2004 and were a condition of the Department for Transport (DfT) funding approval in 2012. That approval – surprising in the light of the DfT giving the BHLR a ‘poor to medium’ value for money rating – looks pretty disappointing now as the ability of an improved bus service to ‘lock in’ any traffic reduction benefits will be prevented: the bus lanes were a key part of that plan and, as the traffic grows back, their delayed operation makes the BHLR look even poorer value for the vast sum of taxpayers’ money spent so far. That’s around £130m.

‘The removal two years ago from transport plans of the long proposed new railway station at Glyne Gap by Rother District and ESCC is a further incentive to ‘carry on driving’ and a blow to any vision of a good mix of high quality sustainable transport for the residents, workers, tourists, young people and students of Hastings. The inevitable increase in traffic is also bad news for those for whom a vehicle is essential’, concluded Derrick Coffee.

Image: © Copyright Oast House Archive and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

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9th June 2016
Potential community use for the Old Town Hall

A group of residents are asking the council if they can turn the currently vacant Old Town Hall on the High Street into an arts based community hub. The likelihood is that the local council will give it to the group at a peppercorn rent until they are up and running (if they can prove its needed).

If you are interested in using the space for exhibitions, selling crafts etc, renting workspaces or running workshops, get in touch via the website.

The hub will be not for profit and any rents/profit share will be at a rate affordable to all. They plan to run a couple of craft retro fairs to get some initial funds at the beginning of July this year.
At a later stage they want to pay a manager to run the building. The hope is it will be open 7 days a week all day and evening.

You can attend weekly meetings about the hub at 6.30pm on Mondays at Old History House, 21 Courthouse Street.

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1st June 2016
Geoff Dann feature on transition movement and the community garden

Geoff Dann (fungi and foraging expert) from Transition Town Hastings features in a short documentary by Sadie Scarlett Smith submitted for her BA in Multimedia Broadcast Journalism final project. See Geoff at 7:12 mins into the film!

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31st May 2016
Progress on the community garden

Another great sun filled garden session

Last weekend, after making use of the donated compost from Gardenscape Direct volunteers enjoyed a cup of tea with doughnuts at Southwater Community Centre. They met a delightful Shiatzu practitioner who helped carry buckets of water out and pour it over the plants too! They also cleared some of the rubbish near the storeroom and planted wild flower seeds. See the gallery below.

News on next steps

The most urgent thing is getting raised beds made and in situ. We are in touch with Littlewoods fencing who are happy to donate materials. Then we need soil and plants to put in the beds. We have some plant donations ready and waiting but please get in touch if you have anything suitable such as edible plants, herbs and flowering plants.

Several committee members recently met with the Station manager, Natalie Leister. She is looking into supplying various items including high viz jackets, ID badges for volunteers, a promotional poster for the platform we can update regularly and a bin for the north platform (to encourage people not to litter). They are also planning to refurbish the buildings on the south platform in the near future.

They are also likely to give the go ahead for a mosaic on the wall to the left of the station entrance – more on that soon!

Tea break at Southwater Centre

Sherry and Kathy dug this front patch over and planted wildflower seeds!

View from South Platform

Using the compost donated by Gardenscape

Working by the new fruit trees

The yard near the storeroom cleared by Alison.

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6th May 2016
Co-wheels short-term car hire service launches in Hastings

Two new low emission cars are now available for residents to hire in central Hastings, as part of a ‘pay-as-you-drive’ car club.

Hastings is the latest car club location to be launched by Co-wheels, the UK’s only independent car club operator, which runs successful car sharing schemes in over 60 locations across the UK. The scheme allows residents to have short term access to vehicles in an affordable and convenient way.

Residents and businesses can join the car club for a one-off fee of £25, which then allows them to quickly book cars online, and unlock them with a smartcard. Keys are kept in the car, and mileage and bookings are tracked with an on-board computer. At the end of the booking time, the car is returned to its bay.

The car club in Hastings has been brought about demand from environmentally-minded residents and community groups who have used car clubs elsewhere, and have campaigned to bring the service to Hastings. The council are not financing the scheme, but have provided two parking bays in Russell Street Car Park, where the cars have permits.

The two Toyota Aygo cars in Hastings can be hired from 30mins up to several days at a time, and are charged at £4.50/hr + 15p mile, which included insurance and fuel. This enables huge savings to be made on the cost of driving compared to car ownership, and studies show that anyone driving less than 6,000 miles per year could save money by switching to using a car club.

Car clubs also help to lower emissions and improve air quality in towns, as well as adding social value by providing access to cars for those unable to afford their own, or who need a second car occasionally.

Richard Falconer, Managing Director at Co-wheels said

“We are delighted to be expanding our service in response to demand from residents in Hastings. The car club will enable a new level of transport flexibility in the town, whilst encouraging people to think differently about car ownership.”

Residents can find out more about the scheme, and claim £10 free driving credit at www.co-wheels.org.uk/hastings

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6th May 2016
Household sustainability talk

It’s quite hard to get your head around which of our actions create the largest CO₂ emissions. Also how much do we need to reduce to keep temperatures from rising by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels?

Ian Smith’s talk on Household Sustainability at Nico’s Kitchen last Saturday provided some answers. Many thanks to Nico’s Kitchen for hosting.

The talk, which you can download below, encouraged us all to consider our personal contribution to global carbon emissions.

Did you know that travelling on a cruise creates more CO₂ than flying in a plane?*

Also, turning your thermostat down by 1°C could save 8-10% on your heating consumption?*

However, we all need to make big changes to our lifestyles to reach the ideal target of 2 tonnes of CO₂ a year!

Download Household sustainability presentation file.

*Statistics above and in the presentation come from Carbon Conversations.

We’d really like to hold some Carbon Conversations for local residents. Please get in touch if you are interested in getting involved.

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18th April 2016
Divestment motion tabled for Hastings Council – contact your Councillor now!
A fossil fuel divestment motion has been tabled for the Full Council meeting of Hastings Borough Council on Wednesday 13 April (6pm @ Hastings Town Hall). Please put this date in your diary now and contact your Councillor to urge them to support it! Please spread the word and encourage others to attend – the event lives on Facebook here.

Template letters for Labour and Conservative Councillors are available here:
- template letter for Labour Councillors;
- template letter for Conservative Councillors.
Read more on the Fossil Free Hastings website:

Divestment motion tabled for Hastings Council meeting on 13 April – contact your Councillor now!

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25th March 2016

Blog

Another great sun filled garden session

News on next steps

Transition Town Hastings Discord channel