East Sussex funding gap consultations

UK local authorities face a collective funding gap of £2.3bn for the 2025-26 financial year. East Sussex County Council is facing a funding gap of £55 million. As local authorities have a legal responsibility to set a balanced budget, this means making some difficult decisions. The County Council will still have a net revenue budget of £538.1 million next year, but every department will need to find savings to close the gap. Consultations on some of the savings proposals for Adult Social Care and Health have already started and more proposals for all departments will be considered by Cabinet in November. The consultations started on 3 October and will close on 28 November 2024. Decisions are expected to be made about all of these proposals by councillors in February 2025. Take part in the consultations here to have your say on the proposals.

Sussex Kelp Recovery Project

Earlier this year I wrote a blog about the Hastings Kelp Project, and I keep on receiving more information about kelp and the Sussex Coastline, most recently in the Autumn/Winter 2024 edition of the Sussex Wildlife Trust's magazine Wildlife. This pointed out that the longer running Sussex Kelp Recovery Project suggests there have been 'glimmers of hope' during the last 3 years in Sussex Coastline's kelp, including the recovery of mussel beds, a greater diversity of fish species being caught by the fishing industry, and increases in Black Sea Bream and Lobster populations (website). For more information, go to the Hastings Kelp Project website and the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project website. Good News!

Queens Road Partially Closed to Traffic.

Queens Road remains closed for gas works, it appears, between Stone Street and Cornwallis Street/Efford Street (HBC website); sorry, can't find out until when.

Don't Forget, Time Travel Tonight!

Indeed, at 02.00 tomorrow morning the time in Britain reverts to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT - website), that is, the clocks go back an hour. This may be great for people who stay in bed until late in the day, but for me it just means I will be awake earlier, sort of, because my body clock doesn't recognise changing time, and I am an early riser. Why is there 'Summer Time' then? In many parts of the world altering clocks has been used to get the most out of hours of daylight, but why not just keep GMT in Britain, if we adopt time travel for light purposes only, surely in the summer more hours of useful daylight is unnecessary? It doesn't make sense in the modern world. However, it's not just in Britain that clocks go back and forth, no, in much of the Western World it changes too, despite many countries not following this process, including Japan, India, China, countries near the Equator for obvious reasons, similarly at, or near, the Poles, eg parts of Canada and Greenland, and Argentina.

So why is the 'Prime Meridian' line at Greenwich, and has been since 1884? This boils down to "that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian... (and it) ...would be of advantage to the largest number of people" (website). So there you have it, I trust that 'night owls' will enjoy the extra rest. However, let's just stick to GMT I suggest, I'm not so fond of this type of time travelling! 😉

Hastings Lifeboat Fish Supper: Just A Few Tickets Left!

Hastings RNLI Lifeboat Station has just annoinced that only a few tickets remain for their 2024 Fish Supper (facebook). This is being held on Wednesday the 6th of November at 19.00, food served from 19.30, at The Old Town Fryer, 1 East Beach Street TN34 3AR. There will be a quiz, raffle, entertainment from the 'Completely Scuppered Shanty' singers, and food served by lifeboat crew. Tickets are £14 cash only, available at the RNLI Shop and the Old Town Fryer.