Green Party gains in Hastings strip Labour of council majority

Going into the election Labour controlled 18 of 32 council seats, with Conservatives holding 12 and the Green Party holding the remaining two.

But after the votes were tallied on Friday (May 6), Labour had 15, Conservatives 12 and the Greens five.

Three seats changed hands: Central St Leonards, Gensing and Tressell. All three went from Labour to Green.

The Greens also came close to taking Castle ward, falling just five votes short of unseating long-serving Labour councillor Judy Rogers.

The results leave no party with overall control of the council, meaning some form of coalition arrangement is likely to take hold in the coming weeks.

Speaking to LDRS after the final results came in, Green Party group leader Julia Hilton said: “We are not going to rush into anything. We are going to take a bit of time and see how things are. Labour also need to do that digesting and move on from the campaign stage. There is a bit of negative feeling on both sides, I think you could say.

“We’ve got quite a long shopping list of things we would like to see changes in, regardless of who we would be working with, especially to do with more transparency, much more questioning of decision-making processes and ideally a return to a committee system.

“[In a committee system] all councillors have an opportunity to use their skills as opposed to the cabinet system where everything is decided by eight to ten people.

“I think that would be to the benefit of everybody in the town. You need proper questioning, constructive but challenging conversations. I think there have been a lot of mistakes over the past few years, because there hasn’t been that opportunity to have people from different parties saying ‘hold on, why are you doing that?’”

It was a more mixed day for the Conservatives. While the party maintained all four of its existing seats (all with incumbent councillors), it was unable to repeat the successes of the previous round of elections in 2021.

In 2021, the Conservatives took four seats from Labour while securing re-election in four others. Had it been an all-out election, it was the sort of showing which could have seen political control of the council change hands.

This time round, however, all four of those wards — Baird, Ore, Silverhill and St Helens — elected or re-elected Labour councillors (two were incumbents).

Even so, Conservative group leader Andy Patmore argued the results showed that the town had ‘rejected’ what Labour was offering.

Speaking after his re-election in the town’s Maze Hill ward, Cllr Patmore said: “We have gone from a town that two years ago was so one-sided towards Labour and now we have no overall control in Hastings. That is a remarkable result.

“If you look at the national picture, of course the Conservatives have done quite poorly nationally as everything has been going on. We have managed to maintain the status quo this time round, but Labour have lost this town.

“I think the reason they’ve lost this town is because they haven’t listened to the rest of us for the past three, four, five years. I think the town will be a better place for the much more collaborative experience it is going to have over the next two to four years, with three parties involved.”

Labour group leader Paul Barnett took a different view, however, arguing the final results came about because of ‘anti-Tory swings’.

He said: “I think we’ve got to really think hard about why people have said they want the Labour Party to represent them, not the Conservative Party in most of the wards of the town.

“We know all the reasons for that. It is not just about government sleaze and lies, it is about long term policies that are actually crippling people’s personal finances and their health.

“Alongside that we have what a different group of people have said in the town today. They have said they also want to see a much clearer focus on climate emergency and for a lot of people of Hastings, saving the planet is their top priority.

“We need an administration that respects both of those things and brings them together, so we are not saving the planet at the expense of the poorest people of the town. We are saving it with the poorest people of the town benefitting at the same time.”

When asked what comes next for the council, Cllr Barnett said it was too early to say.

He said: “But what I’ve said from day one when I became leader is that this town needs real clear partnership working. I am open to working with anyone, who wants to work to the benefit of the people of the town. That is not just political parties that is organisations across the town, the residents all those people who have the town’s best interests at heart.

“The thing that unites everybody today, whoever they voted for, is the pride in Hastings. I think we all share that, whatever our political allegiance.

“I want to lead an administration that actually puts that pride first and delivers for the people of Hastings.”

FINAL RESULTS

Ashdown

EDWARDS Michael, Conservative (Incumbent): 619

HARTLEY Jane, Labour: 350

NEEDHAM Andrea, Green: 110

PERRY Nick, Liberal Democrats: 166

CON HOLD

PRE ELECTION: CON + CON

2018: CON + CON

2021: CON

Baird

FISHER Hannah, Conservative: 473

HOPE Dan, Green: 92

JONES Emlyn, Liberal Democrats: 42

TURNER Mike, Labour (Incumbent): 656

LAB HOLD 

PRE ELECTION: LAB + CON

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: CON

Braybrooke

ANDREW Craig, Conservative: 307

CHESSELL Veronica,  Liberal Democrats: 80

DAVIES Nicholas William, The British Communist Party: 22

O`CALLAGHAN Margi, Labour: 804

PHILLIPS, Sally Green: 322

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + LAB, no incumbent standing

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: LAB

Castle

CLARKE Sue, Conservative: 232

HORN Becca, Green: 722

ROGERS Judy, Labour (Incumbent): 727

STOODLEY Jonathan, Liberal Democrats: 52

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + GREEN

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: LAB 

Notes: While elected as a Labour candidate in 2021 the ward’s other  councillor Claire Carr has since joined the Green Party.

Central St Leonards

COLLINS Tony, Green: 745

COX Ruby, Labour (Incumbent): 711

MILTON Steve, Liberal Democrats: 50

SAMADI, Mus, Conservative: 204

GREEN GAIN, LAB LOSS

PRE ELECTION: LAB + LAB

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: LAB

Conquest

CARLYLE Gabriel, Green Party: 100

HAKKO Kenan, Labour: 346

RANKIN John, Conservative (Incumbent): 623

WAKEFORD Robert, Liberal Democrats: 221

CON HOLD

PRE ELECTION: CON + CON

2018: CON + CON

2021: CON

Gensing

FORWARD Kim, Labour (Incumbent): 671

JOBSON Amanda, Green: 776

MEADEN Chris, Conservative: 205

STOODLEY Susan, Liberal Democrats: 61

GREEN GAIN, LAB LOSS

PRE ELECTION: LAB + LAB

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: LAB

Hollington

BARNETT Paul, Labour (Incumbent): 581

LORD Tracey, Green: 93

MURPHY Stuart, Conservative: 279

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + LAB

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: LAB

Maze Hill

GREENLAND Justin, Labour: 365

KEEN Terry, Liberal Democrats: 135

MCCRAY Beccy, Green: 268

PATMORE Andy, Conservative (Incumbent): 611

CON HOLD

PRE ELECTION: CON + CON

2018: CON + CON

2021: CON

Old Hastings

BACON James, Labour (Incumbent): 981

HOLLIS Kim, Conservative: 241

PACEY Benjamin, Green: 701

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + GREEN

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: GREEN

Ore

HOLLIS James, Conservative: 484

ROLFE Gary, Green: 219

WILLIS Simon, Labour: 544

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + CON, no incumbent standing

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: CON

Silverhill

CAREY-STUART Dave, Green: 184

DE-ROE Sophie, Conservative: 625

GRANT Lee Joseph, Liberal Democrats: 62

SINDEN Nigel Colin, Labour (Incumbent): 698

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + CON

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: CON

St Helens

BATSFORD Andy, Labour (Incumbent): 941

BRENNAN Lucy, Green: 130

LLOYD Bob, Liberal Democrats: 75

LOE Laurie, Conservative: 746

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + CON

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: CON

Tressell

CROWTER Liam, Labour: 325

HAFFENDEN Glenn, Green: 635

SILLEM Judith Ann, Conservative: 175

GREEN GAIN, LAB LOSS

PRE ELECTION: LAB + LAB, no incumbent standing

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: LAB

West St Leonards

BEAVER Matthew, Conservative (Incumbent): 508

CLARK Sherry, Green: 268

MUNN Christopher, Labour: 150

RAYMENT Stewart, Liberal Democrats: 98

CON HOLD

PRE ELECTION: CON + CON

2018: CON + CON

2021: CON

Wishing Tree

CANNAN John, Labour: 681

FAWBERT Stephanie, Green: 130

STREETEN Roger, Conservative: 458

LAB HOLD

PRE ELECTION: LAB + LAB, no incumbent standing

2018: LAB + LAB

2021: LAB