Richard Gladstone
Richard Gladstone focuses on how decisions, incidents and changes in local institutions affect the people around them, with education stories sitting alongside crime, development and community features for the Sussex Express. His reporting turns official statements, inspections and police updates into clear accounts of what has happened and what it means for schools, neighbourhoods and everyday life. Across his recent work he moves between hard news and human-interest pieces, keeping the emphasis on concrete detail and the voices and places at the centre of each story.
School performance and education leadership
In his education coverage, Gladstone reports on school performance and leadership through the lens of formal inspections and measurable outcomes.
His story on a Hastings school praised by Ofsted for “transformative leadership” and “rapidly rising” student success shows how he uses inspection language to frame a narrative about improvement, leadership quality and the impact on pupils. The piece highlights both the structural changes within the school and the results those changes are delivering, reflecting an approach that links governance decisions directly to student attainment and community confidence.
He treats education as part of the wider civic fabric, placing schools alongside other local institutions he covers rather than as a separate specialised beat.
Crime and public safety incidents
Crime and public safety reporting is a significant strand of Gladstone’s work for the Sussex Express.
His coverage of a St Leonards man charged with the rape of a woman sets out the key facts of the case, the charge involved and the circumstances as reported by authorities, keeping the tone direct and factual. In another piece on several people being sprayed with a “corrosive substance” in Sussex, he tracks an active police search for a suspect, summarising the incident, the nature of the substance and the appeal for information in a straightforward, unembellished style. These stories show a consistent pattern: he focuses on dates, locations, police actions and charges, giving readers a clear understanding of serious incidents without speculative commentary.
Public safety is treated as part of the same local ecosystem as schools and amenities, reinforcing his focus on how events shape the experience of residents in the area.
Local development and community amenities
Gladstone regularly reports on local development projects and changes to community amenities, especially where they alter how public spaces are used. His article on plans to “rejuvenate” the Hastings Old Town boating lake describes proposals to transform the site, outlining what is planned, who is responsible for delivering it and how the area could be improved.
The coverage ties physical changes in the built environment to the character and appeal of the neighbourhood, showing how redevelopment efforts can refresh long-standing landmarks.
His inclusion in industry listings that group him with real estate and local planning reporters underscores this strand of his work, which often centres on land use, regeneration and facilities accessible to residents. Development stories in his portfolio are treated as practical news about what will happen and when, rather than as abstract policy discussions.
Human-interest, culture and events
Alongside education, crime and development, Gladstone writes human-interest and culture pieces that foreground individual stories and local events. His feature on Hollywood stars filming in Rye for a new Netflix series blends entertainment news with place-based reporting, noting the presence of high-profile actors while situating the production in the town’s streets and landmarks. Another verified piece follows a Bexhill woman who has vowed to carry on the charity work started by her daughter before her death in Thailand, focusing on personal commitment, loss and the continuation of specific charitable efforts. In these stories he gives space to named individuals and their actions, while still anchoring the articles in clear facts about what has happened and what work is being done. The range from international streaming productions arriving in Rye to grassroots charity work in Bexhill shows his interest in how global and personal narratives intersect with local communities.
Gladstone’s bylines at the Sussex Express span at least from 2019, when he reported on Hollywood actors filming in Rye, through to 2026, when he covered redevelopment plans for the Hastings Old Town boating lake. Over that period he has maintained a focus on the same patch of schools, streets, amenities and residents, returning to the themes of institutional performance, public safety, regeneration and everyday stories. His education reporting sits naturally within this broader pattern, using school inspections and student outcomes as another way to show how decisions and events shape life in the area.
Across beats, his work is marked by concise, fact-led writing and an insistence on situating each story in a specific place and set of circumstances.
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