The end of the pier – Image by Michitogo from Pixabay

The end of the pier show!

On Monday 18 November, Piertown Hastings announced that their Piertown project must draw to a close just days before the planned opening of the ice rink and Christmas market. Dee Williams investigates.

With just four days notice Piertown released the following statement on Facebook.

Their Facebook announcement was quickly followed by over 200 comments. Some of which congratulated the Piertown directors on a job well done, while others thought the closure inevitable given the poor management of events since they took over in June 2023.

My own experience of a Piertown event was not a happy one. I was unfortunate enough to attend the look-a-like event on 25th August 2024. The security teams, under the half-blind eye of Damien Fell, treated the public to the kind of high security search metered out to prisoners of Alcatraz. The confiscated goods included diabetic’s biscuits, children’s sweets and the milk from babies bottles.

Once inside the event the participants found themselves kettled by security guards working for the SS – Sussex Security and Samurai Security. No-one was allowed to move their car, fetch their chairs or heaven forbid bring contraband food into the venue. Those who spoke out against such aggressive tactics were simply man-handled from the event.  I myself was physically removed by a bevvy of security guards for trying to take a photograph of the Head of Security for a story I planned to write.

Author, 69 year old pensioner, removed from the pier by security at the look-a-like event. Source: L. Chapman Facebook

If you treat paying customers with such disregard, then don’t expect them to come back.  My complaint of unlawful assault to Hastings Police is still languishing in the ‘to do’ tray of my civilian investigator who has yet to secure any body cam footage nearly three months on.

If the recent Telegraph journalist case tells us anything, it’s that the UK police have their hands full investigating ‘hurty words’ on historic social media posts.

Telegraph article from November 14th 2024.

Following my horrendous experience I have no time for the Piertown event organisers but I can understand the disappointment of those who thought that the pier was finally delivering and now see it as just another Owens debacle.

I walked past the end of the pier last week and saw no preparations for the highly promoted ice rink and Christmas market.  Was it ever a going concern?  It would appear that tickets have been on sale right up to the announcement yet the Hastings Ice Rink organisers knew that the event couldn’t go ahead a week before when they put this message out on Facebook.

The blame is firmly on the shoulders of the council, but according to Steve Wilkins, a previous organiser of events on the pier, the ice rink was never a viable project in the first place.

This rather suggests that Piertown never received the green light for this project, yet went ahead anyway, selling tickets and raising expectations. Although full refunds are promised from ticket agents Skiddle, one Facebook commentator stated that booking fees have been withheld.

The writing was on the wall for Piertown when the two directors signed to have Hastings Pier Events Ltd struck off the register on 7th and 8th of November. Yet the ticket sales continued.

Piertown directors file to have Hastings Pier Events Ltd struck off the register.

It would seem that the Piertown team had big dreams which for far too many people, myself included, turned into nothing but a nightmare.

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