WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter
Hastings Pier Madness
Dear HIP
Why can’t our local council step in and save Hastings Pier? It seems unwise that this important community asset was sold to Sheikh Gulzar in the first place. The council seems either overly naive or willing to overlook individuals who make ambitious promises but ultimately fail to deliver on them.
The old Debenhams building is another prime example of the same nonsense, with investors walking away with no feasible explanation.
It really is time that our council realised that many – not all, of course – of these types of operators are only interested in the revenue and really have no consideration or commitment to the town whatsoever, despite their protestations – not that much different in many cases from the vape shops, dodgy barbers and souvenir shops that seem to proliferate.
It appears that Gulzar has not succeeded in reinvigorating the pier. There are also concerns about whether structural maintenance has been kept up to required standards. In light of this, the council should consider removing him from the project and letting the Friends of Hastings Pier take over. The town should not be intimidated by legal threats.
Indoor amusement machines, kids’ rides, dodgems, etc. belong on the pier rather than cluttering up the historic Old Town. There are plenty of outdoor options there already, including the world-famous Crazy Golf, a kids’ play area, ball sports facilities, and so on.
The council should also get the boating lake back up and running, turning it into a mini lido or sunken garden, or simply filling it in and leaving it as open space. Finally, re-open the access from the road to the beach.
Come on, Hastings Council – get your heads out of the sand and open your eyes to the realities of the town that you represent. The way the world is going lately, foreign travel is getting less appealing and the ‘staycation’ is becoming more popular, so wake up and get it sorted.
Yes, Hastings is a seaside town. Town centre regeneration is promised, and St Leonards is on the up – but bringing the pier back to life, in the hands of people who care, should be a priority too.
I could go on, but banging my head against a brick wall comes to mind when thinking about these absurdities of town management.
Stuart D
(Old Town resident, Hastings born and bred)
Letter
Creating a better planning service
Dear HIP
Now that the draft local plan consultation and the elections are over it may be appropriate to further consider how the town’s most pressing problems of housing shortage and dealing with global warming might be progressed. Might it be done with more and better dialogue?
Potential building plot at Cherry Tree Close, St Leonards
Over the last 18 months or so, the Hastings Urban Design Group (HUDG) have been trying to establish a dialogue with Hastings Borough Council planning department on how to create a more efficient and effective planning service than at present. After all, it is something we all pay for in our Council Tax and something that contributes to the success or failure of building more homes. We set before HBC a catalogue of apparent errors, faults, and omissions by the development control section of the planning department. At first our approach was completely dismissed, but eventually a meeting was arranged when it was mutually agreed that some improvements were necessary and we made some suggestions. We asked for a follow-up meeting, but despite repeated requests, over many months, we are still waiting.
Related to the above is that during the local plan consultation period it emerged that the usual development site identification process was not identifying possible small sites. Rather, it was relying on a backward-looking ‘windfall site’ system, which is now being recognised by some other planning authorities as not being thorough enough. Indeed, the different community groups within the town which commented on the local plan identified a range of possible sites which could potentially provide some 700 or more homes (flats and houses) apart from those on the planners’ list of sites.
Given the foregoing, we invite representatives from the public who know of potential sites or are themselves looking for sites to develop/self-build, to contact us via the form on the HUDG website. Once these are reviewed we will invite representatives from the council planning department (if they will attend) to a joint meeting to discuss, and hopefully agree, how both the site identification system and the planning process itself might be revised for the benefit of the town.
Ken Davis MA DipArch, DipPlan, DipBuildCons.
Chair Hastings Urban Design Group (urbandesignhastings.com)
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