Pier For Sale Again
KENT BARKER
The Friends of Hastings Pier are urgently seeking ways to bring the landmark attraction back under community control, following news that the pier’s owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar notified Hastings Borough Council that he intends to ‘dispose’ of it after seven years of tumultuous stewardship. The pier is registered with the council as an Asset of Community Value and the intention to sell has triggered an interim six-week moratorium to enable anyone to express an interest to bid for the structure.
The Friends said “Bringing the pier back under community control, management and ownership was always a key part of our constitution which is why we worked hard to get it recognised by HBC as a valuable asset to our town.”
They now plan to submit an ‘expression of interest’ which will provide a full six-month window before any sale can take place during which they say they will work to “restore community control of the pier”.
In 2018 the Friends lost out in their bid for community ownership after it was sold by administrators for £50,000 to Mr Gulzar, who already owned Eastbourne pier and several hotels in the area. It had previously been owned by the Hastings Pier Charity who had secured funding to rebuild the structure following a devastating fire in 2010. However, the charity went into administration in 2017, leaving thousands of local residents holding valueless shares which they had bought to aid the restoration.
In August this year HIP reported that 80-year-old Sheikh Abid Gulzar was being prosecuted on ten charges of fraud connected to one of his hotels in Hailsham. His ownership of Hastings Pier has proved extremely controversial, not least because of his predilection for gold-coloured artefacts to adorn the boardwalk, his battles with the council over planning and licensing matters, and his alleged neglect of repairs to the sub-structure.
A spokesperson from Hastings Borough Council told HIP: “Following formal notification to the Council by Sheikh Abid Gulzar of his intention to dispose of Hastings Pier, Hastings Borough Council has informed the community group that nominated the pier as an asset of community value, and we are awaiting confirmation whether they are interested in bidding for the pier.”
The friends of Hastings Pier have appealed for volunteers to help with their bid to acquire the structure.
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A major issue facing any group wanting to take over the pier , is how to create enough income to run the pier. On top of management, insurance and security overheads, the structure requires constant maintenance and repair. At its restoration, the only proposed sources of income were a cafe amd outdoor events. Both, considering our climate and seasonal trade, very unrealiable.
Unfortunately, it seems no one looked at how the Victorians/Edwardians built and ran successful piers. The pier might have won an architectural prize, but didn’t deserve prizes for business sense.
Whoever is allowed to take over this precious public asset must provide a plan of how they expect to make it financially viable, long term. Or else we continue the cycle of collecting money from the well meaning public in the form of private donations and publc grants, and then sinking into administation and disillusion