Hastings Pier owner Abid Gulzar has been served 11 enforcement notices by the borough council regarding breaches of planning and listed building consent, just one month after he announced plans to place the heritage attraction on the market. A timely intervention, you might ask? Well Gulzar does want to sell the pier for £3m and the council does want to hand it over to a local community group. So no clash of interest there then.
Hastings Borough Council has served Abid Gulzar with enforcement notices regarding his management of activities and operations on Hastings Pier, with councillors identifying 11 breaches of planning and listed building approvals.
The list of complaints includes the storage of items outside on the pier without permission,using the visitor centre as a bar, and running a sauna – the local authority is seemingly keen to pursue the notices before the pier is sold to a new owner.
Gulzar has been a naughty boy on the breaches, but why has the council only just identified these issues now?
Some will obviously suggest this action is a little too coincidental – the battle over Hastings Pier reopened last month when Gulzar announced his decision to sell the attraction which has been on a rollercoaster of decline and fall, and revival and slide over the past 10-15 years.
And the Council seems to have made its move.“Hastings Borough Council has taken action as there have been several breaches of planning and listed building control at Hastings Pier,” said a spokesperson. “Enforcement notices have been served on the pier’s owners to stop unauthorised activities and ensure they are following planning law.”
“The breaches include using the visitor centre ground floor as a bar without planning permission, storing items outside without planning permission, placing structures on the pier without planning permission, and in some cases, listed building consent, and keeping structures on the pier that do not follow the conditions of previously granted planning permissions or listed building consents.”
It’s a long bureaucratic list of issues: some of which will likely be afforded retrospective planning permission if or when the council’s preferred local community group assumes ownership of the pier – £3m willing of course.
But, it does have a naff whiff about it, not least the timing and its helpful intervention for the parties involved in looking to take control of the pier.
It should also be noted that this story has history – and some very bad blood.
The operation of the pier came back under intense scrutiny a few months ago when Gulzar announced plans to sell the attraction after seven years, having acquired the Grade II-listed landmark in 2018, a purchase which left local residents “deeply angry.”
At the time, Gulzar was favoured by the council over the Friends of Hastings Pier community organisation, a decision probably influenced by the fact that it was a local community group that had originally overseen the demise of the pier, running the attraction into insolvency and eventually placing it into liquidation in 2017.
Now, the council is back on the scene again playing what seems to be the same role – and what many will consider hard ball. Joining it on the pitch are the familiar foes Gulzar and the local community.
It sounds very much like the first Battle of Hastings Pier in 2017-2018. We seem to travelling back to the future.
