Press Releases
Press Statement
14th April 2024
SOUTHERN HOUSING CEO TO VISIT SLUM HOUSING ON WILLINGDON AVENUE
Contact: Maya Evans 07973 484 202
As part of her black mould and damp campaign, Councillor Maya Evans has invited Southern Housing CEO Paul Hackett to Willingdon Avenue in Hollington on Tuesday 30th April, so he can see first hand the dangerous, unacceptable and potentially fatal conditions his residents are living in.
All the flats Cllr Maya Evans has been into on Willingdon Avenue are riddled with damp and black mould. Many to most of the residents placed in this blocks by Southern Housing are large families with kids, all the parents say their kids either have asthma, perpetual coughs and itchy eyes - all symptoms of living in close proximity to black mould.
At least two households on Willingdon Avenue are currently decamped from their homes and are being temporarily housed by Southern Housing in hotels or caravan parks, the housing association have told residents they are not liable for damp and mould damage to furniture, carpet, clothes and other possessions, as residents are apparently supposed to take out their own "tenancy insurance".
Cllr Maya Evans said: "We know from the case in Rochdale, with the tragic death of toddler Awaab, that living near black mould can be fatal for very small children. Since launching my black mould campaign I am average one black mould call out per day. Kids are sleeping under clouds of black mould, they always have coughs, and residents are perpetually unwell and say it is impossible to get better because their homes are making them sick."
She added: "Residents are being ignored by Southern Housing, it is completely unacceptable as they are paying rent and rates to live in unsafe conditions. Residents tell me the old blocks either need to be pulled down and replaced, or hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on refurbishing and retrofitting. Black mould is a crisis across Hastings, but it appears to be particularly acute in Hollington."
Press Statement
13th April 2024
HASTINGS INDEPENDENTS ANNOUNCE ELECTION CANDIDATES
Just three months since forming a new local political party, the HASTINGS INDEPENDENTS GROUP have announced the 8 candidates standing in the local elections on May 2.
They are all new fresh faces, apart from Maya Evans who is re-standing in Hollington, and all bring a wide range of skills and experience from real jobs in our local community.
Our message of a strong local voice standing up for the views of our residents is clearly in tune with many local people, and we are hearing across the town how fed up many are with national parties who all sound the same.
Hastings residents are asking for immediate action on six priorities, and don’t think that any national party is listening. HASTINGS INDEPENDENTS are listening, and will call out those who are failing us all, without fear or favour.
It is time for change.
SIX ISSUES ON THE DOORSTEP
1) Access to health locally. Hastings has far too few GPs and many are fed up with waiting to see one.
2) The state of our roads. The worst pot holes in Susses, no sign of the county council dealing with it.
3) Damp and mouldy housing. Landlords, public and private, failing their tenants.
4) The state of our schools. Worst exclusion rates in the south of England, unaccountable Academies.
5) No end to the war in Gaza. And this is leading to increased anti Muslim and anti Jewish feelings.
6) The state of our seas. Criminal levels of sewage leaked by an unaccountable Southern Water.
Paul Barnett, Leader of Hastings Independents, said “ I became a councillor simply to help improve peoples lives. It has become clear that the best way of doing this, of challenging the broken system, is to be a local independent voice, free from national control.
Having made this happen decisively, we will be equally strong calling out those who are failing Hastings. Residents deserve better, Hastings needs its own voice. We will deliver that and change will happen. “
Press Statement
14th December 2023
Leading Hastings Councillors announce resignation from Labour Party to form a Hastings Independent Group
After long and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision today to leave the Labour Party and become independent councillors.
There are many reasons, but our view is that standing up for Hastings, and especially for our residents, will be much easier as independents.
The national Labour Party no longer provides us with the policies, the support or the focus on local government that we need given the many local issues we are committed to tackling.
We will now concentrate on standing up for Hastings, working in partnership with all those who are passionate about driving our town forward, and our work in our communities, which is why we all became councillors.
Cllr Paul Barnett Leader of the Council
Cllr Maya Evans Deputy Leader of the Council
Cllr Andy Batsford Cabinet member
Cllr John Cannan Cabinet member
Cllr Ali Roark Cabinet member
Cllr Simon Willis Cabinet member
Statement Cllr John Cannan, Wishing Tree Ward, Hastings Borough Council
Cabinet Member and Chair of the Charity Committee
14th December 2023
In May 2022 I was extremely proud to be elected as Labour Councillor for Wishing Tree Ward. I worked hard to get elected and received great support from the Labour Group. That same group of Labour comrades provided me with so much encouragement as I found my feet as a new Councillor. Since that time I have worked hard for the residents of Wishing Tree advocating for them across a broad range of issues.
In October 2022 I was delighted to be invited to join Cabinet as Chair of The Charity Committee. It’s been a real pleasure to work with a cabinet group of such talented, energetic, creative, and hardworking people. I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey described above which is why it has been such a difficult decision for me to make to resign from the Labour party with immediate effect.
Unfortunately, during the time I describe above the Labour Party Leadership and officials have moved the party away from the core values that I hold dear; protecting the most vulnerable, fairness, co-operatively working for the common good, protecting the interests of workers, cherishing the NHS, green policies to fight climate change, international co-operation to name a few. This has been evidenced by a failure to support striking workers and their unions, rowing back on green investment, support for the continued privatisation of the NHS and an appalling response to the tragedy currently taking place in Gaza.
At a local level unelected party officials have undermined Hastings Borough Council leadership over and over again. They vetoed a popular co-operation agreement with the Green Party. They have prevented popular local politicians from applying to stand as the local MP and have ‘parachuted in’ their favoured candidate. What does all this say about local democracy? They have blocked the deputy leader of the Council from standing as a councillor in the forthcoming local election. Where once there was a broad church receptive to ideas from all perceived wings of the party, there is now a narrow-minded vindictiveness directed at those on the left.
I wouldn’t join the Labour Party as it presents and operates today, hence this decision.
I look forward to working with the very talented group of newly independent Councillors who, I know, will put what is best for Hastings at the very core of everything they do.
Statement by Cllr. Maya Evans, Hollington Ward, Hastings Borough Council
Deputy Leader of the Council, Cabinet member for Regeneration & Climate Change
14th December 2023
I would like to announce my resignation of the Labour whip.
I was proudly elected councillor for Hollington ward in 2018 and have taken great pride and honour in serving my residents. Hollington has proven to me the importance of community solidarity and how people who have been given the least in life, often give the most when it comes to helping others. I have been both humbled and inspired by residents who have twice elected me to represent them on the council, and to be the change they want to see.
Over the last few years, it has become increasingly apparent that the Labour Party has moved away from many of its core values and principles. To woo the Tory vote the Labour Party has lost its way, leaning into right wing policies and rhetoric which has become increasingly difficult to publicly justify and support.
I understand that Labour’s current election strategy is to mirror the Tories, and although I want rid of the current abhorrent Government, I cannot continue to volunteer hundreds of hours to an organisation which no longer represents working people, no longer stands up for the persecuted and oppressed, and no longer has a vision to radically improve life for a huge portion of society who are on low incomes, marginalised and vulnerable. I know lots of Labour supporters will feel confusion and maybe even anger at my decision, however it has now become impossible to continue with integrity.
Locally we have been micromanaged by Westminster centric unelected Labour Party officials who have barely visited Hastings let alone understand the town and its residents. The national Labour Party has denied Hastings’ members the right to select their own parliamentary candidate and selection of councillors; and there is now a well-established national pattern of the Labour Party blocking people of colour from leadership positions. It appears unelected Labour officials now have a very fixed idea around who is electable, sadly this tends not to favour people of colour, working class people, or local people from the community. I have personally been blocked by the Labour Party from standing as an MP and also to re-stand as a councillor, reasons given were spurious.
Labour’s policy position on Gaza has been completely unforgiveable, from not supporting a ceasefire, to silencing politicians from speaking out, expelling an MP, unofficially instructing councillors not to attend peace marches, and enforcing a three-line whip which led to the resignation of 10 Labour MP shadow ministers. To date 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, 7,000 of which were children. To stay silent is to not support humanity.
I will continue to work hard for my residents as a Hastings Independent councillor, I will continue to uphold the values and principles I was elected upon, moreover I will continue to put Hastings first, prioritising everything I do for the furtherment of the town and its residents.
Statement by Cllr. Simon Willis, Ore Ward, Hastings Borough Council
Cabinet member for Housing & Homelessness
14 December 2023
It is with sadness and a certain measure of anger that I have decided today to resign from the Labour Party after more than thirty years of membership. I have found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the actions of my party with its espoused principles of equity, fairness and equality.
Colleagues have been terribly treated and I have tried again and again to ignore it because even indirectly contributing to more years of deeply corrupt and malign conservative rule is so unbearable to contemplate. I have held senior positions in Whitehall and the voluntary and private sectors and am currently a global vice president for an American tech company. Each of these environments have been tough, challenging and competitive in their own different ways. But never have I been asked to tolerate the contempt and injustice threatened and delivered to myself and my fellow members in the Labour Party.
Most painfully, I do not regard it as coincidence that nearly all the local members who have been barred from running locally or nationally or who have been suspended or expelled from the party are black, brown or Jewish - and mostly women. In each case the grounds given have been starkly spurious, not just by conflating criticisms of the state of Israel with antisemitism but, in several cases, by referring to events or bans that post-dated the alleged offences by years. This is not just injustice, it is a level of Kafkaesque inhumanity that sits very oddly beside the traditional values of the party I joined.
It surely doesn't help that Labour also seems to have lost both its vision for positive change and its courage to stand for the most precarious, the most in need and indeed for the organised labour movement that founded the party.
My mother is a holocaust survivor who has devoted her life to fighting injustices against aborigines, immigrants and women. She taught me never to stay silent in the face of racism, sexism and authoritarianism. I fear I have stayed silent too long.
I will now focus on helping my Ore residents who I will continue to proudly represent, and on making the lives of all who live in my beloved town of Hastings better. I look forward to working closely with respected members of all parties and with my fellow independents to achieve this.