Friday 16 June was a black day for residents, visitors and traders in Hastings, as the local authority ordered the Grade II listed pier to be closed immediately and indefinitely on safety grounds. Aggrieved traders running the cafes and shops on the pier, whose livelihoods were suddenly under threat just as the peak visitor season approached, attended a hearing at Hastings Magistrates Court on 21 June, at which Boss Management, the firm running the pier on behalf of the offshore owners, appealed the Council’s decision. The magistrates adjourned the hearing until 9 August to allow both parties to prepare their case.

Concerns about the pier’s safety had been raised initially in late April, when pieces of metal from rusted support beams were found to have fallen from its underside. Hastings Borough Council immediately placed signs on the beach warning the public not to walk under the affected area, and in mid-May wrote to the owners requiring them to commission a structural survey to ascertain the condition of the pier. No response was forthcoming, and a few weeks later Council officers were concerned to see advertisements appearing for large-scale pop group events in the pier ballroom in July and August. The Council then commissioned Gifford Engineers of Southampton to carry out an inspection of an area beneath the covered walkway around the main entrance. Giffords visited the site on 15 June and found that at least five trusses had failed. They concluded that it would be inadvisable to allow large numbers of people to walk over this area, which provides the only method of access on and off the pier. The Council then invoked emergency powers under Section 77 of the Building Act (1984) to close the pier with immediate effect from the main entrance building onwards, including the Bingo hall (former pier theatre) and amusement arcade, the dozen or so retail shops, cafes and bars leading to the ballroom, and the upstairs gallery space. The Council said it was “disappointed” to be taking such drastic action, but public safety had to come first.

The Grade II listed Hastings pier was designed by Eugenius Birch at a cost of £23,250 and opened on 5 August 1862, the date of the UK’s first ever Bank Holiday. Modelled on BRIGHTON WEST it is one of only six surviving Birch structures and, like his stricken BIRNBECK pier at Weston-super-Mare, now very much under threat. The pier had been facing an uncertain future only six years ago when its former owners went into liquidation, but a saviour appeared in the form of millionaire businessman Ian Stuart, who purchased the pier for an undisclosed sum and proceeded to remodel it in the style of “Covent Garden by the sea”. The new owner faced criticism from the Theatres Trust after the 500-seat theatre was stripped of its ornamental plasterwork and turned into a bingo hall. Comment was made at the time of restoration that more attention was being paid to décor than to the substructure, and that fire precautions were notable by their absence. Mr Stuart began to distance himself from the pier, which was handed over to Ravenclaw Investments (thought to be a company registered in his wife’s name) and managed by Quay Leisure & Entertainment. It is understood that the holding company is now based in Liechtenstein for tax reasons. Whatever the details, a privately owned structure is unable to seek Lottery funding or other public subsidy, and it is clear that lack of proper maintenance has led to this shock closure and placed a huge question mark over the future of one of the country’s most important piers.