SPOTLIGHT: More doctors, easier booking and better phone system promised by GP surgery
Four more doctors are joining the Victoria Medical Centre in Old Town to help address the huge problems patients face in trying to see a GP. The centre is also pledging to release non-urgent appointments more frequently and would mke them available every three days to make it easier to book ahead. And, in an […]
SPOTLIGHT: Council paid developers more than £750,000
By Huw Oxburgh, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter Wealden District Council has paid out more than three-quarters of a million pounds in appeal costs since January 2021. The single largest payout resulted from the council’s decision to refuse the 700-home Mornings Mill development on farmland at Willingdon, Eastbourne, which was approved on appeal. One Labour councillor […]
SPOTLIGHT: Planning inspector approves care home conversion
By Huw Oxburgh, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service Controversial plans to convert a former Eastbourne care home have been approved on appeal. A planning inspector has approved retrospective proposals for an 11-bedroom property at 13 Gorringe Road — a building which had formed part of a care home known as The Shires. Eastbourne planners had refused […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]