Open Hastings updated 15 Sep, 08.45 Search

Open Hastings / For local businesses

For local businesses

Three questions, answered from the public record: what is changing near your premises, what public money you could go for, and which rules are changing while you can still shape them. No sign-up, no advice, no eligibility claims — every row links to the source.

Business premises on the move

Planning applications about commercial premises — a change of use, a new shopfront, a former pub becoming a café — picked out of the weekly lists by the words in the council's own description. The matched words print on every row, so you can see exactly why something is here; the extensions and conservatories this filter removes are one click away.

All planning →

For your own street or premises: search a postcode or street name, or start from your ward. Every street page lists what has been proposed and decided there, and has a feed you can follow — that is how you hear about the application next door before it is decided.

What public bodies are buying

The other direction of the money: contract notices from the two national services, Contracts Finder (below-threshold) and Find a Tender (above-threshold). A notice appears here when the buyer is a Hastings council, when the notice states a delivery postcode in the borough, or when the buyer or winning supplier is itself based here — each counted for a stated reason, labelled on the row.

These are floors, not totals. Below-threshold notices reach Contracts Finder at the buyer's discretion, and our record starts Wed 15 Jul 2026 — earlier contracts are not shown. County-council notices cover the whole county and are labelled, never counted as Hastings spending.

Open to bid

Live notices, soonest deadline first. The notice page states how to respond. New notices land in the opportunities feed, and their closing dates in the deadlines calendar — neither needs an account.

Recently awarded

Awarded is not the same as spent, and the council's own papers hold the decision behind each contract.

The government's own services search every public body: Contracts Finder lists most public-sector contract opportunities, and Find a Tender the largest ones. Both are free and need no account to search.

What actually gets funded here

The most recent published grants: who got the money, what for, and how much. This is the honest guide to what funders spend on in this town — their programme pages are the only word on what they would fund next.

The money map →

Rules changing now

Consultations still open. Licensing policy, trading rules and charges usually change this way — a taxi licensing amendment or a gambling policy review appears here while it can still be answered.

All consultations →

Premises licences, street trading and gambling policy are decided by the borough council's licensing committees, whose papers this record cannot yet collect — the council's committee system blocks automated visitors, and we have asked for a route they support. Until then those papers are on hastings.gov.uk.

What the record already holds on licensing — premises licences, street trading, taxis, gambling policy — is gathered on the licensing & trading topic page, which shows exactly how it is compiled.

Who decides, and how to keep watch

The people behind the decisions, and the feeds that watch the record for you. Nothing needs an account, and we never learn who is watching.

The decisions digest is what has actually been decided, in plain English; the committee record holds each committee's meetings and papers — agendas usually appear about a week before a decision, so what is on the table is visible while it can still change. The councillors page lists the borough councillors by ward and the county councillors by division.

To watch without checking back: the opportunities feed carries every contract notice still open to bid and every consultation still open to answer, and the deadlines calendar puts their closing dates in your diary, updating itself when a deadline moves. Every street and organisation page has its own feed — how to follow explains it from scratch.

If you run an organisation here, the opportunity radar goes a step further: say what you do once, and it keeps a page of every open tender and consultation that mentions it, with deadlines and the matched words shown. Whether a notice fits your business is your judgment on the notice's own words.