Battleaxe is on the political warpath again. Recently, I have tried not to get hung up on international or national politics. Bad for the mental health. I do try to keep myself up-to-date with Trump, Gaza, Ukraine etc., as well as the efforts of our Labour Government, which feels quite enough. So, Battleaxe had taken her eye off the ball about what is happening locally. Devolution for Sussex… Abolition of our current local authorities … An elected Mayor? What’s all this? I’ve now done my homework, and it looks grim. Anyone in East or West Sussex who is Labour, Lib Dem, or Green, prepare yourselves…
To start us off, here’s a graphic showing current voting intentions in Sussex. Look at it now, and I’ll come back to it later. I’ve used the Hastings Online Times for quite a bit of the material in this post. They have some excellent articles on devolution, all credit to them.
In a nutshell, at the beginning of this year, Sussex was one of six areas chosen to ‘benefit’ from the Government’s new Fast Track Devolution programme. In this context, Sussex includes the current East and West Sussex County Councils and the Brighton and Hove Unitary Authority. Over time, all the current local government bodies, including Borough and District Councils, will be abolished, and replaced by a single County Combined Mayoral Authority, supported by three lower tier unitary authorities, probably for East, West Sussex and Brighton. This graphic shows you the Devolution timetable.
You will see that there was provision for a local consultation exercise. This indeed happened, and I filled in an on-line questionnaire some time ago. It wasn’t a very good questionnaire – I can scarcely remember it. But how many of the rest of you even saw that questionnaire, let alone filled it in? And did ESCC consult us before putting our area forward for the devolution programme, and taking the decision to be part of it? No, it didn’t. The Conservative Cabinet took the decision entirely on their own. Here’s the ESCC information on the issue.
The ESCC County Council elections scheduled for May 2025 have been cancelled, much to the dismay of all parties in the county apart from Tories. There was a real expectation that the struggling Conservative majority on ESCC would be overturned. No decisions have yet been taken about the local HBC elections.
Now, before I go any further, let’s agree that looked at from here in Hastings, the current system is not fit for purpose. There is endless cross-over and confusion about the responsibilities of ESCC and HBC. Both are chronically underfunded. Our local Hastings council is riven with pointless inter-party feuding, largely driven by the defection of a significant number of Labour councillors in 2023. As mentioned above, ESCC is led by an out-dated rump minority Cabinet of Conservatives, well due for replacement. As a deprived seaside area, Hastings is struggling on all fronts. It is apparent to all of us that the current County regime in Lewes has little knowledge of the area. They don’t even understand the challenges of the geographical terrain. They probably have little interest in us. Hastings looks and feels neglected. An overhaul is badly needed, but is the proposed large-scale demolition job the right way to go forward?
I know Hastings Borough Council was/is producing alternative proposals to large-scale devolution, but I don’t know what is happening about that. Look readers, Battleaxe has done some homework, but I don’t know everything. I am happy to be updated/corrected/informed.
What are the supposed benefits of devolution? Here is the link to the Government White Paper, published in December 2024. It’s all about taking power away from London, bringing that power closer to the people, levering funding to appropriate places, cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, tackling regional inequalities etc etc. All very laudable, but was this prioritised in the Labour manifesto in 2024? As far as I can see, to a degree, but the manifesto gave more priority to tackling issues around the governance of the four countries of the UK and giving additional powers to existing mayors before the introduction of large-scale new programmes. The manifesto made it clear that there were more pressing prioities for the new government… I don’t remember a single instance when devolution or related issues came up on local doorsteps. So why are we getting this foisted on us? Why now?
What will be the impact on Hastings? Firstly, any local government reorganisation, however small, throws services into disarray, and this change will be absolutely massive, and last for years. Staff will be anxious, morale will be low, recruitment will grind to a halt, forward planning will be difficult, decision-making palsied and new projects stalled. Vast sums of money, that could have been used to boost services, will be spent. Numbers of elected local representatives will be reduced. Our local authorities are already struggling and services are stretched beyond their limits. As I have already said, the County Council in Lewes already feels very remote from Hastings. How will losing our own local authority and having an even more remote overarching structure bring services closer to Hastings residents? Will more funding be diverted to us? Good questions. I can’t see anything positive here. Can you?
Next, let’s look at the population break-down/geography of our area. See this graphic.
Currently, West Sussex has a population of 900,862. East Sussex has 555,484. Brighton and Hove has a mere 279,637. West Sussex is significantly wealthier than East Sussex, and includes the affluent city of Chichester. Which part of Sussex will hold the cards in this new post-devolution world? You tell me!
What else do we know about West Sussex? Apart from a few Lib Dem enclaves, it has a history of being very strongly Tory. Look again at the voting intention graphic at the top, with the blue areas in West Sussex, and also note the large blue area in East Sussex. What does this picture show us? That the Conservatives are far more likely to take/keep power in the new Sussex political structure.
That’s discouraging enough, but I actually decided to write this post after an alaming revelation. Last week I was down at the Stables Theatre. While queuing in the Ladies at the interval, I vaguely recognised the woman in the line ahead of me. Yes, it was Sally-Ann Hart, the comfortably defeated ex-Tory MP of this constituency. Battleaxe has had plenty of run-ins with her in the past, but was content to write her off as a has-been, yesterday’s woman, a nonentity. I didn’t bother to engage with her, just sniggered happily to the friend who was with me. Not nearly so fast, my pretties…
You see, a few days ago, Philosopher showed me the above. Here is the link to the Hastings Online Times article. I nearly choked on my gin and tonic. Yes, the shameless creature has put herself forward as a Conservative candidate for Sussex Mayor. Oh God surely not. But yes, she has. I’ve heard of the jokey term FILTH – Failed In London, Trying Hastings, but what would Failed In Hastings, Trying Mayor look like? FIHTM doesn’t work. The Conservative voice for Sussex? Oh purleeze. She was comfortably defeated, and wasn’t any good as an MP anyway. You’d think she’d do the decent thing and give it all up.
The only other candidate who has put their name forward is nearly as unsuitable. Katy Bourne, who has been our Conservative East Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner since 2012. She is slightly more pleasant than Hart (I have met Bourne at a WI do) but pretty darn ineffective. So far, there are no other candidates. Who could come forward for Labour, the Lib Dems or the Greens? I have no idea. Have we got an Andy Burnham or even a Sadiq Khan lurking in our midst? Hmmm… they need to show themselves – and fast… But, whatever, the Conservatives are still more likely to stroll into power.
See what I mean about things looking bad? What can we do? You tell me…
Great, eh. Battleaxe is not having a good day today. Just suffered the rigours of the dental hygenist, and the stress of seeing a new dentist. We go to what is now the Southcliff Dental Practice, in Battle Road. It was once an excellent set up, but was taken over by a firm that runs a corporate chain of dentists across the South East. Things have gone downhill… Our regular dentist left, they had no replacement for a long while, and today I saw someone who only works for the practice one day a week…
Ah well.
You should stand for election yourself, Stephanie. You know so much about local issues!