What’s Next For Hastings Pier?
A look back over the twelve months since its sale. By Emma Harwood When the historic landmark was refurbished with £14 million of public, Heritage Lottery and shareholders money, it seemed to mark a triumph of community - led regeneration.…
Friends of the Pier: “We’ll be here when the time comes”
Friends of Hastings Pier (FoHP), the community group whose bid to buy the pier in June was unsuccessful, remain buoyant despite the withdrawal from frontline action of two leading activists, Jess Steele and Adam Wide. PICTURE: Susan McFie At a…
What Lies Beneath: Keeping Hastings Pier Safe
By Emma Harwood It won the RIBA Stirling Prize for its sophisticated, contemporary design last year. Yet almost half of the £14 million Heritage Lottery and other public funding spent on its reconstruction went towards restoring the unseen, yet most…
Pier Future
Current owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar has made a submission to the planning department of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) setting out his future proposals for the pier. The Council have however responded that they are seeking further information from him ‘in…
Friends Campaign Continues
Ensuring pier’s long term maintenance and enforcement of planning regulations are key objectives. By Emma Harwood The new owner of Hastings pier, Sheikh Abid Gulzar, has erected a wooden hut and applied gold paint to parts of the grade II…
In the Dark
Community group demands answers regarding the sale of Hastings pier. The people of Hastings and St Leonards deserve answers to a long list of questions surrounding the ‘cloudy and often opaque’ process by which the pier was sold out of…
Boycott the Pier in the Hope it Fails Again
I never expected my investment to make a return. It was enough to be part of a community effort to save a historic artifact. There was the added bonus that as the regeneration took place I felt a sense of…
Judge a Man by the Company he keeps
So how did the Sheikh with a string of failed and failing companies get his pier bid approved? “The aim throughout the process was that the heritage asset be sold to the party which demonstrated the highest probability of sustaining…
TIDE US OVER!
Let us manage the pier until the end of December, say FoHP. Emma Harwood reports. As the clock ticks for the Friends of Hastings Pier (FoHP) to persuade administrators to hand ownership back to the Hastings and St Leonards community,…
TRUST IN THE COMMUNITY!
Friends of Hastings Pier look to the Foreshore Trust to back their bid Emma Harwood reports The Foreshore Trust, a charity managed by Hastings Borough Council that owns all the land along the seafront from Rock-a-Nore to Bulverhythe, could play…