Bohemia Village Voice

By Stuart Huggett , Aug 2011.

Hastings Pier

The pier first opened in 1872, and weathered storms, war and fire for over a century. However, the 1990s and 2000s saw a sharp decline in its fortunes, as its ownership changed from one set of private hands to another. On the pier itself, traditional amusements were sidelined in favour of numerous small business outlets vying for tourist money, while beneath the decking the structure’s iron supports were neglected. Hastings Borough Council judged the pier to be unsafe in July 2006, shutting it to the public, and, despite a partial re-opening of the shoreward end a year later, further storm damage necessitated full and final closure in March 2008.
With the pier in the intractable ownership of Raven’s Claw Investments – unhelpfully based in Panama – the independent Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust (HPWRT) was set up with the aim of obtaining a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on the structure, and thereafter restore it to its former glory.
Hastings Borough Council approved the CPO in principle in February 2010, the same month that work got underway on the redevelopment of the Stade. HPWRT received a £75k grant from the Communitybuilders Fund (then part of the Department of Community and Local Government) one month later. Sadly, the pier caught fire in the early hours of October 5, 2010, and 95% of its superstructure was lost in the blaze. Two teenagers arrested near the pier that night, and subsequently bailed, were eventually released without charge the following April, after the Crown Prosecution Service failed to find enough evidence to begin a prosecution against either individual.
The HPWRT estimates £8.75m is needed to repair the pier in order to open it up to the public again. In May this year the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) awarded a £357k development fund to the trust, which now has to raise £800k (10% of the initial restoration cost estimate) before the HLF considers whether to award the remainder of the money needed.
Without access to the major funding that benefited the council’s ‘Stade Masterplan’, the HPWRT has turned to smaller scale initiatives to help it raise its £800k target. Members of the public can join the trust for £10 per year. The public has also been invited to sponsor individual planks for the pier – the donation of £50+ allows a personal 30-word message to be inscribed on a plaque on the plank. With the rejuvenating boost of May’s HLF award, it is hoped by many in the town that committed fundraising by the HPWRT [picture] could see significant progress in the resurrection of Hastings Pier by the time the Olympic Torch Relay reaches the town next July. For Hastings to be returning one of its best-known landmarks to life would send a significant message to a watching nation on July 17, summing up the possibilities of the town’s ongoing renewal beyond the Stade Open Space alone. If so, the Olympic Flame could ultimately burn brighter in the hearts of the community than those flames that gutted its pier last year. Website: www.hpwrt.co.uk

Fundraisers Lesley Kennard & Carol Evans