Hastings Country Park serves some of our most needy

Re. Solar panels in Hastings Country Park. Whilst most of us realise that this is one of the most beautiful assets the town possesses, attracting locals as well as tourists from far and wide, what some people don’t appreciate is that it also serves some of our most needy residents in this town of high deprivation, depression and suicide rates.

As chairman of Hastings & Rother Play Council for many years, I recall we took mini buses of Social Service-referred children there, as well as other parts of our beautiful natural surroundings, during Play Schemes, run mainly by volunteers, (another vital asset that Hastings has always supplied in this town of Ragged Trousered Philanthropists). It is somewhere available to all-comers, rich and poor alike.

That area is also one of the few places left where the night sky is still visible, as there is little or no light pollution. One can stumble across astronomers there on a dark night, along with the occasional moth observation party. Dawn brings twitchers and enthusiasts watching migratory birds.

Some of our politicians are comparatively new to the area, and seem to need expensive consultancies to find things out. If you ask the locals first, you could save spending our money so readily on these exercises.

Wind farms here are worth considering, but losing the jewel in our crown isn’t.

This project is wildly expensive and ill-thought out. If it’s an election issue... remember the marina under the cliffs, the closure of the towns loos and that stone monolith a politician thought was a good idea?

It will not win friends or influence people, other than in a negative way.