Pier could return to community hands following owner’s decision to sell

News that Hastings pier is up for sale has revived hopes that it can be brought back into community ownership. As the pier is registered as an asset of community value, the Friends of Hastings Pier and other local community groups have a period of six months to mount a bid for it. Nick Terdre reports.

Sheikh Abid Gulzar, who bought Hastings pier from the administrators after its previous owner, Hastings Pier Charity, went bust in 2017, has decided to sell it. As it is registered as an asset of community value (ACV), he was obliged to inform Hastings Borough Council of his intention.

This triggered a six-week period ending on 26 November in which local community groups, including charities, community interest companies, non profit distributing companies limited by guarantee and community benefit societies, can inform the council of their wish to be recognised as potential bidders.

The Friends of Hastings Pier have already done so, thus triggering a six-month moratorium during which the owner may only sell to a qualifying community interest group, Hastings Borough Council said in a statement.

The owner is not obliged to accept a bid from one of these groups nor precluded from receiving bids from non community parties. The six-month period is counted from the day the council was notified of the disposal, so it runs until 15 April 2026.

Gulzar told Hastings & St Leonards Observer that, “I tried my hardest and put all my love and money into the pier and have decided at my age of 81 to let someone else take it on.” He declined to talk to HOT about the matter, saying that, “Anything negative you print about me in two minutes, but anything positive you don’t print.”

He said he had recently won an important case but declined to say what it was.

The Friends of Hastings Pier also mounted a bid when the pier was in administration. It did not succeed but obliged Gulzar to raise his own bid to £50,000, at which price the administrators sold it to him. There was widespread disappointment that such an asset, restored at a cost of more than £14m, largely provided by the Lottery Heritage Fund, should pass into private hands.

Following the sale the Friends were responsible for having the structure registered as an asset of commmunity value in 2018, and having this status renewed when the initial five-year period expired in November 2023.

They are now initiating contacts with other relevant stakeholders on how to proceed, spoesperson James Chang told HOT.

In September the local MP Helena Dollimore added her voice to the Friends’ cause. More recently she told The Argus she gave her full support to the Friends’ mission to “protect the pier, and bring it back under community control.”

Jess Steele, who played a key role in putting together the Friends’ bid in 2018, told HOT the situation was now very different, “with an active MP, different HBC leadership, local government reorganisation, Pride in Place programme, changes to ACV/Community Right to Buy, etc etc.”

What was important was to achieve unity between the different parties, she said: “I think there could be a version [of how this will go] where the key stakeholders (MP, both councils [HBC and ESCC], Friends of Hastings Pier, Foreshore Trust, Hastings Board, potential funders, and people with long memories and/or relevant skills and knowledge) all align and work together for the good of the pier. That should have happened back in 2018 but it didn’t.”

Maintenance questioned

The Friends would like both a condition survey and an independent valutation of the structure to be carried out, Chang said. During Gulzar’s ownership there have been calls for the council to investigate how well the pier, particularly the support structure, has been maintained, though it has always refused to do so.

However, there are signs of inadequate maintenance, not least in the so-called accelerated low water erosion zone close to shore, where the support structure is most exposed to the debilitating effects of the sea. Many of the concrete abrasion guards which protect the bottom part of the columns are worn away and need replacing.

Some of the horizontal beams which protect against the buckling of the columns under the weight of the deck no longer perform this function; they have collapsed as the bolts securing them to the columns have failed. Bracings and rakings have also come adrift.

Close to the promenade there is a leak of polluted water from the sewage pipe onto the beach. Another leak can be seen coming through the deck in the area of the restaurant kitchen close to the gates, which has presumably caused damage to  the deck.

One informed source told HOT that the cost of making good these defects would run into a significant sum, probably in the millions of pounds.

Pier company liquidated

In 2023 Gulzar applied to put the Lions Hastings Pier company into liquidation; the process was completed in September though without any recommendation from the liquidator that the Insolvency Service should consider his fitness to act as a director.

The company held debt of some £313,000, which will not now be repaid, but not the freehold which Gulzar owns in his own name. The bulk of the debt, some £118,000, was to Gulzar himself and two of his companies, though it is unclear what this money was spent on.

Another £77,000 was the amount awarded by an employment tribunal to pier engineers Peter Wheeler and Daisy Hill for unfair constructive dismissal; other creditors included HBC, Lloyd’s Bank, British Gas, EDF, E.On, Haven Power and Opus Energy.

Gulzar and his associate Manasdeep Singh are currently facing fraud charges in relation to water bills for his hotel business.

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