Community

Original interviews and features about the Eastbourne community and a wide range of people and places. Depth and originality from a not-for-profit set-up. Please become a member through the KoFi link so I can create a sustainable news model. Many thanks!

Paul Richards Labour PCC candidate

SPOTLIGHT: Labour and Co-operative police and crime commissioner candidate

By Sarah Booker-Lewis, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter Below are the responses from Labour and Co-operative Party candidate Paul Richards, 56, who is pictured above. What difference will you make if you are elected? It’s time for change. Only Labour can beat the Tories in Sussex. So I am asking you to lend me your vote […]

Read More
Jonathan Kent PCC candidate

SPOTLIGHT: Green police and crime commissioner candidate

By Sarah Booker-Lewis, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter Below are the responses from Green candidate Jonathan Kent, a former BBC journalist who tweets as @jolph. He is pictured above. What difference will you make if you are elected? For years we’ve had a Conservative police and crime commissioner under a Tory government bent on cutting public […]

Read More
Katy Bourne PCC candidate

SPOTLIGHT: Conservative police and crime commissioner candidate

By Sarah Booker-Lewis, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter Below are the responses from Conservative candidate Katy Bourne, who tweets as @KatyBourne. She is pictured above. What difference will you make if you are elected? Continue cutting crime – neighbourhood crime already down 23 per cent, residential burglary down 33 per cent, fighting drugs gangs (585 disrupted […]

Read More
Jamie Bennett PCC candidate

SPOTLIGHT: Liberal Democrat police and crime commissioner candidate

By Sarah Booker-Lewis, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter Below are the responses from Liberal Democrat candidate Jamie Bennett, 34, a hotel manager who tweets as @JamieBen120689. He is pictured above. What difference will you make if you are elected? Liberal Democrats believe the post of PCC should be abolished but, until we are in a position […]

Read More

SPOTLIGHT: An artist’s view of the Turner Prize legacy  

The arrival of the prestigious Turner Prize in Eastbourne attracted worldwide attention and drew thousands of visitors to see the work of four artists at the Towner gallery.  But beyond the whirl of activity and the televised prize ceremony, there have been projects involving the people of Eastbourne running quietly in the background.  One of […]

Read More
East Sussex potholes

SPOTLIGHT: East Sussex pothole reports double

Reports by residents of potholes in East Sussex more than doubled last year.   In figures released in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, East Sussex County Council said it received 26,309 reports of potholes and other carriageway defects in 2022/23.   This was more than double the previous financial year (2021/22), which […]

Read More
Eastbourne Town Hall

SPOTLIGHT: Top East Sussex council pay packets revealed 

The latest Town Hall Rich List has been published, showing how many council employees received more than £100,000 in 2022/23.  Collated by The TaxPayers’ Alliance, the figures showed that 73 employees of councils across East and West Sussex – not including Brighton & Hove – took home more than £100,000 in salary, pension and other expenses.   […]

Read More
Victoria Medical Centre Eastbourne

SPOTLIGHT: The fight for an appointment at the Victoria Medical Centre 

When Shereen Soliman’s mother-in-law was staying with her in Staffordshire, she wanted to see her own doctor in Eastbourne at the Victoria Medical Centre (VMC) about her chronic lung condition.  So Shereen, 39, drove her mother-in-law, who wants to remain anonymous, 230 miles back to the East Sussex coast, only to find she could not get […]

Read More
Sovereign Harbour apartment plan

SPOTLIGHT: Harbour flats plan sent back to the drawing board 

The developer of a controversial seven-storey development of around 130 retirement seaside apartments must make changes to secure planning permission.  Eastbourne Borough Council’s planning committee voted unanimously in a show of cross-party unity last night to defer the planning application for a site on the western edge of Sovereign Harbour.  The main points of contention […]

Read More
Old Town rec Eastbourne

SPOTLIGHT: “We lost £150,000 in funding because of two-year council delay” 

A sports coach working to upgrade facilities in a park has said a delay of two years by Eastbourne Borough Council in agreeing an important lease meant the project missed out on £150,000 in funding.  Craig Wells first had the idea for a modest scheme which could transform the Old Town recreation ground during lockdown.  He […]

Read More