COMMON PEOPLE

from Get Hastings, Summer 2023

"The hippies round here say the ley lines join up wrong in this town..."

Written by Beth King

Portrait photography by Joe Charrington

It’s a breezy summer’s day and I’m standing on the newly renovated roof of the Observer Building, chatting to a few ‘Hastings Commoners’. Darren, originally from Brixton, moved here when he was youngster in 1998. He is a trustee and Chair of Hastings Commons Community Land Trust. “I was severely depressed when I first volunteered at Ore Valley and met Jess (Steele)” Darren tells me. “I remember saying to Jess, “Right, what do you want me to do?” and Jess replied, “That’s not how it works, Darren, what do you want to do?” “There was this path, and ever since I was a kid, it’s been slippery and dangerous, so I said, “I want to sort that out.” And we did. The whole experience gave me a new perspective, a bit of self-worth. I felt like I belonged rather than just being.”

At the time, Darren was volunteering for Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust, as it was then known, when they were trying to save the disused power station site at Ore Valley to transform it into a community-owned and permanently affordable eco-village. They occupied the site on licence for over two years, clearing it up and putting on community events, before effectively being evicted in March 2019 by the regeneration agency, Seaspace, who sold it on to a commercial housing developer. “It was a case of powerful decision makers who just wouldn’t listen… they wouldn’t even look at the plans” says Jess. “It’s still derelict today” says Darren, “although now there’s thousands of tons of rubbish dumped there from the Fellows Road development. I know, because I live there, I’ve seen them do it.”

Since then, Hastings Commons CLT has successfully rescued the Observer Building and Rock House from dereliction, transforming them into new workspaces for creatives and affordable homes. The CLT bought the buildings, and others, for the community’s benefit. By taking them off the market they’ve stopped commercial developers from ever being able to brazenly flip the building for profit or turn them into luxury flats that only a few can afford, which could easily have been the fate of the OB. The buildings are held in a trust and can’t be sold, so they stay in the community forever. As the community owns the assets, they also get to make decisions about them.

Back on the roof, and people are still grieving over what happened at Ore Valley. For Commoner, Ian Studley, proudly wearing a Heart of Hastings branded sweatshirt (the name changed to Hastings Commons in a vote last September), redevelopment is taking too long. He wants to see things ‘sorted’. Ian also thinks that, “Locals are being forced out by the incomers – DFLs, AFBs or whatever you want to call them.” As we stand marvelling at the views and imagining what the rooftop bar will look like, I ask him who he classes as ‘locals’. “Hastings or St Leonards’ second, or first, generation born-and-bred”, he proclaims. I share some sympathy with Ian’s views. As someone who was priced out of the area where I grew up, the influx of people moving to Hastings has pushed house prices and rents up. People have cashed in, but others are victims of the UKwide housing crisis.

“I’m not comfortable with the term DFL”, says Jess Courtney Bennett from Project Art Works and a long-term supporter of Hastings CLT. “There are a lot of people who have moved to Hastings, perhaps not out of choice, who are key parts of the community. I don’t agree with grouping people together as a ‘negative’ term”. I agreed, chipping in with, “You get tossers everywhere, whether they’ve moved here from London, or they’re born here.” Darren points out that the CLT should be here to help anyone who’s been established in the town for at least several years and has genuine need. “If they understand what the CLT is about and want to get involved, they should be welcomed”.

Anyone can become a member of the CLT for just £1.00 and have a say on the future of the CLT. It has 300 members already, but they need a lot more people to get involved and become a philanthropist for a quid. If you want more affordable housing, workspaces or a community-run nursery, you can put these ideas forward to a vote at the AGM. You can donate more, but you can’t buy more votes. It’s a democratic process and everyone gets one vote.

Hastings Commons’ approach is an aspiration and one that is littered with challenges – not least how everyone can work together, without it all becoming a headache. Yet, it has opened up opportunities for creatives to collaborate and given people secure homes. “The general idea is great; it has a lot to offer, and it is changing people’s lives”, Ian says, pointing over at Darren.

Ruth McSmart, owner of Cheese on Sea who, along with her partner, James, rents a shop on Claremont said, “Yes, it’s flawed, but it’s human nature not to get everything perfect and there’s no way that we would’ve been able to do what we’ve done and open our business and employ local people if we hadn’t had our rent protected by Hastings CLT. The bloke next door to us, his rent increased to a ridiculous rate and so he closed, and that shop has sat empty for months.”

The Observer Building has had something like 13 owners since closing in 1984. Most of them sold it on to make a profit, without doing anything to improve the building. So, over the years, the building just rotted as water and pigeons took over.

There are still many people in the town who worked at the old Observer, or whose parents and grandparents did. Many more remember the infamous days of the ‘Old OB’, around 2015/16. Despite the controversy surrounding the developer at that time, Jeff Kirby, these days will remain the good old days for many. Dawn Dublin, Erika Holland and later Lily Kim and Lily Pierce, Rob Sample, Ollie Crowther, Jay Toole, Michaela, Mauricio and others, helped breathe new life back into the building by creating creative social spaces. They ran workshops, a café/bar, cinema, and exhibition and theatre spaces. Rock House supplied the electricity and water (legally) through a hole in the wall. One person remembers the toilets being, “really grotty”. The point is, no one can argue that saving the OB, and other buildings, for the community is not a good thing.

The alternative is far worse. But, for creative spaces to flourish, they must avoid falling into a corporate hierarchy structure that can stifle creativity. It’s a delicate balance if you want a place to function well and be sustainable, and this is exactly what the Commons aims to achieve.

Thankfully, due to the CLT’s phased approach to development, the Observer, 12 Claremont, The Caves, The Common Room and Rock House are all safe, but land and housing are expensive and grant funding can’t last forever.

Since Rock House in 2014, Hastings Commons has successfully bid for over 100 funding awards, including from Hastings Town Deal. While a sign of endorsement for the process, the negative side is that funders have their own set of conditions, timeframes and constraints and being accountable to many funders is inevitably going to impact on the speed and cost of the development.

The more people who become a member of the CLT, the better, but I asked Jess Steele why people would become a member when many bought shares in the Pier, and look what happened to that? “Hang on a minute”, Jess replied, putting me straight, “you’re forgetting the vital bit in the middle, we saved the Pier.” Which is true. Jess had stepped away from the project when it was handed over to the new owners, Hastings Pier Charity, who led the restoration but failed to generate sufficient income. In the end, the Pier entered insolvency. Jess tried to buy it back with Friends of Hastings Pier, but it was eventually sold by the Administrators to the current owner for £60k.

The last Commoner I spoke to, Nick Wates, thinks the principle of a community-led developer is brilliant. “What characterises this organisation is its community spirit and dynamic approach to development. I’ve been here for 30 years and was involved in an organisation called the Hastings Trust, a similar kind of trust, and in 1990 we had a go at trying to save the Observer and get it going as a shared workspace and we didn’t succeed. The point is, this organisation (Hastings Commons), has done it with the OB and with Rock House, and it’s fantastic.” ⚫