Data downloads
Everything on this site as data you can open, check and re-use. If you're writing about Hastings, take the dataset. You don't need to ask. We do ask for a credit, "Source: Open Hastings".
The datasets
Each one is the same data the site is built from, not an export of a subset.
Grants into Hastings
Published grants recorded against Hastings by their funder, or made to an organisation with a Hastings postcode (match_rule says which), 2019 onwards. Awarded is not the same as spent, and these totals are a minimum, not the full picture.
Public contracts
Contract notices from Contracts Finder and Find a Tender. match_rule states why each row counts: a Hastings buyer (buyer_borough), the county council (buyer_county, which covers the whole county, so never quote it as Hastings spending), a stated borough delivery postcode (delivery_ward), or an organisation based in the borough (buyer_ward or supplier_ward, where the notice doesn't say where the work happens). cpv is the notice's main procurement code; suitability is what the notice states it suits (sme, vcse, none, or blank when it doesn't say). Coverage starts when collection began, not when the services did.
Planning applications
Applications validated by Hastings Borough Council, from its weekly lists. Site addresses only, with no applicant, agent or objector details.
Planning decisions issued
Applications the council issued a decision on, from its decided weekly lists. The decision column is the council's own wording from the application's summary tab; where empty, the outcome is on the application file at the source URL. Week_ending is the decided list's week, the precision the list states.
Council documents
Every committee paper, consultation and application on the record, with its source link.
What happened (events)
Every event derived from the record: applications validated, grants awarded, consultations opened and closed, each with its modality, evidence link and participants. Each event is what a document records: an application being made isn't the same as it being granted.
Who represents Hastings
Borough councillors by ward and county councillors by division, from each council's own member register. Public role facts only, with no contact details; seats holds committee seats (county) or the council's stated key posts (borough). The source URL is the council's page for each member.
Places and organisations
The entity graph: streets, wards, organisations and committees, with how many records mention each.
Election results
Every candidate's result in every election Hastings Borough Council has published as returning officer, 2002 onwards: borough wards and by-elections, county divisions, the Hastings and Rye seat, the police and crime commissioner. Names, parties and votes are the council's own words and figures; elected is 1 for the winner(s).
Hastings Borough Council supplier payments
Every payment over £250 the council has published in its monthly files since 2018, one row per line, with the council's own directorate, service area, account and category words. An empty supplier is a payee the council withheld. file_url is the council's file the line came from. date_check says 'after publication' where the date is later than the day we collected the file (a typing slip such as 2096); those lines are in no month on the site. Payments under £250 are not published.
The wards in figures
Each ward's figures and the borough's, as the ward pages show them: Census 2021 (ONS tables TS001, TS007 and TS054, via Nomis); English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG; a neighbourhood is placed in the ward holding most of its postcodes); mid-year population estimates (ONS, via Nomis); the claimant count (ONS and DWP, via Nomis; ward counts rounded to 5). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Each Census table is adjusted on its own for confidentiality, so totals can differ by a few people. ONS's ward estimates are for mid-2024 and add up to 91,219, the borough's figure when they were published; ONS has since revised the borough's mid-2024 estimate to 91,017.
Open lists, as JSON
Two lists rebuilt with every update and rewritten only when they change:
- deadlines.json: everything you can still act on, as on You can still act on. Each item says where its closing date comes from: the council's own date, a rule (with the rule's words) or unknown (with where to check). The same dates are in the deadlines calendar.
- opportunities.json: contract notices still open to bid, consultations still open to answer and funding rounds open to apply to, as the opportunity radar reads them.
What you're getting
- Every row has its source URL, so any figure can be walked back to the council's or funder's own document.
- The grants data is a minimum rather than a total. We count a grant when the funder recorded it against Hastings or the recipient's address is a Hastings postcode, and other money filed under a wider area is invisible to us. Please don't report our total as "all the money".
- Awarded is not the same as spent. Nothing here tells you whether a grant was drawn down or what it achieved.
- Planning rows give the site address only. We deliberately leave out applicant, agent and objector details.
- Councillor rows give public role facts from the council's own register: name, division, party and committee seats. No contact details and nothing personal. For the rest, the council's page for each member is the record.
- Each event is what a document records. "Applied for" doesn't mean granted, and "awarded" doesn't mean spent. Every row links to its evidence so you can check.
- These files are rebuilt every few hours. Data health shows whether collection is currently working.
Licence and credit
Council documents are © their publishing authorities and generally available under the Open Government Licence; grants data comes from 360Giving publishers under their own licences; street names are © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL; postcodes and their wards come from the ONS Postcode Directory (contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right, Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right, Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0); what a charity does and its website come from the Charity Commission's register of charities (Open Government Licence v3.0), and full grant descriptions from 360Giving's datastore. You can use our own compilation work (the joins, the entity graph, the tagging) freely. Where a licence requires attribution, please pass it on.