We need an elected mayor in charge of Hastings

I favour of an independently-elected strong mayor system of government for Hastings. Remember when people went to town hall meetings and were listened to? It seems to me that only elected officials can be held accountable to the people. So it seems to me, also, that when the chief executive of the town is a bureaucrat, a lot of things get done behind closed doors. One consequence of this is that public opinion is more easily managed; but the real problem is that, because there is much less public scrutiny, poor decisions get taken.

Certainly, these problems are issues in Hastings:

Did you know that no economic impact analysis was done by either Hastings' Borough or Seaspace, before they built the Priory Quarter commercial developments. Their hope was that if we built new office and retail space, businesses might move into them. It's called supply side thinking.

The problem is, we already have loads of empty retail and office space and as businesses move into the new town centre, the old town centre will become more empty and dilapidated ... it's already happening.

A little public scrutiny would have promoted a more balanced plan and some of the millions we had would have been used to fix the current town centre's crumbling infrastructure.

I hope those of you who are reading this will sign the petition that is going around calling for a referendum on changing to a strong mayor form of government.