Only if we get an accurate record of what happens will we be able to change anything, so please help.

We want to put more numbers up: direct numbers for local Police (by area), and the like. If there are any you would like, or you know please let us know through the comments.

A summary of recent news.

Anti Social behaviour:

Pressure is being put upon street drinkers and others who cause problems. A greater police presence will be on the streets  on sporadic days to deal with any problems on top of day to day policing.

Part of the policy is to put pressure on sellers of drink not to sell to known street drinkers, and this is being fairly successful. However some of the more resourceful boozers are getting drink bought for them: if you see this please make a note of who is doing it and at least tell the shop owner, (they are breaking the law, which is a disincentive for them).

Over the next months there will be a concerted campaign to target  people with dogs off leads, who will be given on the spot fines, as well as those who let their dogs foul the pavements. Hastings Council are also running a high profile poster campaign, so you can down load a poster for your windows to help deter this horrible practice. (Dog poo is always a top item in the list of what people hate. It is usually only one or two idiot owners who let it happen. Let the idiots know, and pay for it.)

The Marina is opening up, and things are changing in one of the best buildings in the South East, (eat yer heart out De La Warr…), more news to follow. Lets help all we can on this one to put St lens on the map.

The shops at the bottom of London Road are being helped with new frontage clean ups which should help the visual impact of St Leonards as visitors enter from the seafront.

The Marine Court Heritage Open Weekend September 10^th -12^th , Marina, St Leonards on Sea TN38 0DZ.
Visit this stunning 1930’s iconic “liner on land” building.

Explore the history of Marine Court
The Burton Gallery, open Friday 10^th –Sunday 12^th 1100hrs-1700hrs (Sat open late)

Join the tour
Meet in front of Azur for a talk and walk around the exterior. This tour has British sign language interpretation and wheelchair access, Saturday 11^th 1600hr and Sunday 12^th 1400hr.

Discover
Stories, images and mementoes in shop window displays.

Artworks for purchase
Prints for sale by Eilidh Anderson, Andy Tuohy, Gerry Whale and Railway Heritage posters at the galleries and shops.

Refreshments served
Enjoy a themed 1930’s style teatime at Marina Post Office Tearoom, 1030hrs-1700hrs. Azur presents a teadance and special afternoon light refreshment menu on Sunday 12^th from 1500hrs.

Cinematic showing
“Love your Lido” an archive experiment about the West St Leonards Bathing Pool by Mat Mcdonnell (with Electric Palace Cinema) Saturday 11^th from 1800hrs at Hastings Arts Forum.

Soirée
Saturday 11^th 1800hrs to late. Stroll and browse at participating shops and galleries. Watch the sun setting over the sea with authentic 1930’s cocktails, fine wines and dining at Azur, Bar Blah and the Bengal Curry House and Relax. Dress code 1930’s glamour.

Accommodations available at Marine Court
Plan to stay onboard at a holiday let www.marinecourtapartment.co.uk

Marine Court Businesses hope you enjoy your cruise
AJK architects, Art of Mirrors, Azur, Bar Blah, Bengal Curry House, Burton Gallery, Cut It Out Studio, Hastings Arts Forum, Heaven on Sea, HSL Chairs, La La Rookh, Marina Post Office Tearoom, Relax, Diamond Flooring (Online Web Design )

Archive and original exhibition materials generously provided by
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, East Sussex Libraries, Marine Court Residents Association, Ed Williams and Gerry Whale (Fletcher Priest Architects), Marc Heuclin (John Bray and Sons), HWRPT (Hastings White Rock Pier Trust), Electric Palace Cinema, Hastings Borough Council, and the peoples of St Leonards and Hastings.

http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/HOD011395E/
Here is the link to heritage open day site.

tel (01424) 451486

It is likely to be the major source of funding for the next few years, if not the only source of funding, and so we should be aware of it from the start. Although it is called ‘Hastings Regen’ and the Jerwood is over in the Old Town, there is no reason why St leonards shouldn’t take advantage of the closeness and profit accordingly.

Hastings Regeneration Strategy 2010-2014

This year businesses are going to have to do it themselves. Council budgets don’t stretch to putting up lights all over the patch. So right now we are looking for ideas on how to decorate our businesses and our streets for Christmas, bright cheery ideas which we need soon.

One idea has been to have simple strings of white lights outside every business, like Norman Road does. Another idea is to try and involve the many artists in St leonards and see what craetive ideas they come up with.

Any more ideas out there? Please leave them in the comments below.

•    St Leonards Festival – Yet again an outstanding success. Thanks to the Gensing and Central St Leonards Forum and especially their officers for the huge effort they put in.
•   Cleaning up St Leonards – We have repeated the seafront ‘grotbuster’ walk first done in 2000.
We noted down every building needing repair or redecoration and owners will now receive a letter encouraging them to take action. Failing to respond could result in enforcement action. If you own a building in our town you have a social responsibility for its upkeep.
When we did the first seafront walk we noted the derelict hulks of the Queen’s Hotel, Regent Court and the Marlborough, plus other smaller eyesores too. All those have been dealt with and the seafront looks much better. But with the salt air, buildings in this prominent location need regular maintenance and improvement.  A high profile walk sets the tone and reminds everyone what we expect. The ‘grotbusters’ are on the case.
Cllr Birch had a meeting with our local police commander Chief Inspector Mark Ling to agree a get tough approach to street drinking and begging. We get complaints from residents who feel intimidated by groups of drinkers and by aggressive begging. They also complain of offensive behaviour by individual drinkers. A dispersal area has been declared on the promenade enabling the police to move drinkers on and this is being enforced. Twenty two of the thirty four anti-social behaviour orders in the town have been issued to street drinkers.
At the meeting we agreed to step up the joint enforcement activity between the police, the council and other agencies. We want a harder line to be taken by off-licenses with habitual drinkers. Just like the Bar Watch scheme, which agrees that named individuals will not be served in town centre pubs, so off-licenses will be pressed not to serve the well-known street drinkers? Habitual Drink Orders will be considered which make it an offence to sell alcohol to a named habitual drinker. In September we are going out with police to see first hand how they are dealing with street drinkers.
There are now more detox opportunities and improved funding for those organisations working with drinkers and we want to encourage street drinkers to take up these opportunities.
During August the council we will be launching a crack-down against dog fouling with some pretty hard-hitting posters and leaflets. Keep your eyes open – otherwise you might tread in something.
•    17 Pevensey Road – in this long-term unsightly property all the flats now have active leaseholders that to want to improve the building and this does seem to be reflected in the improved appearance of the property.  All the flats with the exception of the side flat are now back in use.  The council recently met with the leaseholders’ representatives and has been assured that they are working towards setting up a company to take over the freehold of the building. The council has also been in communication with the Crown’s representatives and secured their willingness to sell the freehold at a reasonable rate.
•    Planning – The empty, semi-derelict shop at the junction of Shepherd Street and Gensing Road – 22/22A Shepherd Street – now has permission to be turned into residential use. Hopefully this will be implemented reasonably quickly and the appearance of the building improved.
•    Highways – In early September the entrance to Undercliff by St Leonards Parish Church will be closed and there will be temporary traffic lights on Marina. This all to allow for the resurfacing of Marina (the seafront road).             Around the same time similar road closures will be carried out to the entrances to Warrior Square from the seafront (although it will be phased so that only one is closed at any time). This again is to allow for resurfacing            works on the seafront road at Grand Parade and Warrior Square.
•    Councillors’ surgery – We are holding an advice surgery on Saturday 7th August 10.30-12.00 at St Leonards Parish Church on Marina. Do come along if you wish to see us.

Cllr Jeremy Birch – 425585
Cllr Trevor Webb – 451693

Not a lot of this gets reported and there are people doing lots of paid and unpaid work for the St Leonards community:
July 2010

Street Cleansing & Collections Operations Manager, Emmett Dunford,  brought us up to date with new initiatives regarding cleaning and refuse collection.  There is to be a crackdown on people putting bags out early for collection, and dog fouling, this will include fines and education.  He urged anyone who has a regular problem with litter or rubbish/flytipping/graffiti to contact the council. (SBA will have a list of numbers soon which will go in the sidebar.)

• A new booklet it to be distributed to each household in the area outlining collection times etc.
• They are reviewing the way rubbish is collected and trialling new types of bins and collection methods.

Street Cleansing: We asked about the regularity of pavement cleaning for staining.  The contractors have a set standard and criteria to meet with regard to all rubbish and cleaning, this is mostly self regulated, but is regularly inspected by the council.
We pointed out that it has been years in some areas since a deep clean has happened.  He said he would look into this.  (note: contractors were cleaning the pavements with water and brushes this week)

Refuse Collection: It was proposed that the council could consider refuse collection in the early evening say 6pm or 7pm, when the roads are quieter and most people would be home to put out their rubbish without having to put it out early in the mornings before they leave for work when the seagulls are searching for food.

We asked about the possibility of recycling food waste (this could reduce the amount of mess caused by seagulls ripping open bags to search for food).  This is currently being looked into by County.

Other Matters:

Fingers signs/signage should be in place by September 2010, as will the trees that are to be planted in Kings Road to prevent people parking on the pavement.

The illustrated map of St Leonards is nearly ready to go to print.  Overlays for the map will be available to purchase by businesses etc.  e.g. holiday lets or a particular business can have their details printed on the map, and could be used for advertising, websites etc.

Terry Drinkwater has met with the council  to look at the possibilities for planting up the 2 hexagonal planters on the steps leading down to the promenade by Warrior Square.  We also raised the question on how much the ugly modern phone box that is sited next to these plants is used.

Terry Drinkwater is now looking at ways to improve the look of shops, entrance to the lower end of London Road near the sea front.

We asked if it would be possible for SBA business members to advertise (for a small annual fee) their business on the site with a photo and details.  Bill Orton was happy in principal for this to happen and said he would speak with Matthew the website co-ordinator.

Anti-social behaviour new initiatives to deal with anti social behaviour and street drinking are under review.

Details  of any other event will be posted as, when and if they arise.

Thanks, as always to GSLC for putting a lot of work into this before being stopped by …(edited by the lawyers).

From The Gensing and Central St Leonards Community Forum:

The Gensing and Central St Leonards Community Forum have been approached by the organisers of Hasting Week and have agreed to run the event detailed below.

HASTINGS WEEK STREET PARTY

WEDNESDAY 13^TH OCTOBER 12PM TO 8PM

KINGS ROAD

This event is called a street party but will be a market with entertainment.  This traditionally takes place on the High Street however the organisers have decided that this year the event should take place in St Leonards and the forum has been asked to run the event.

It’s not on the same scale as the St Leonards Festival market:

• Market using tables not market stalls

• Opportunity for traders to have a table outside their shop.

• We will bring in some market traders but not external food traders.

• Entertainment of some description but no stage

• Childrens fancy dress competition

• Best dressed window competition

There will be a charge for this to cover cost of license and overheads cost yet to be decided.  The price will be less than charged at the St Leonards Festival.

Further details still to be decided any suggestions would be most welcome.

This sounds great, and could be a good boost for Kings Road and St Leonards generally. Please help with ideas, participation and custom. More details as and when. Enquiries to The Gensing and Central St Leonards Community Forum please.