Friends of Hastings Pier Meeting Report 23rd April 2018

I attended the meeting called by Friends of Hastings Pier yesterday evening, at the White Rock Theatre, met up with a fair number of like-minded friends, and was impressed at what must have been circa 500 shareholders and supporters in attendance. My notes are a bit hard to read as I'd originally written them on the paper that turned out to be the ballot paper for representatives to put forward the plans of Friends of Hastings Pier and the meeting to the Administrators, so I scribbled them down quickly, in poor light, before casting my votes! Anyway, to the meeting...

The meeting was chaired by Steve Manwaring of Hastings Voluntary Action, who handled very well the little friction that appeared over the two hours, and kept the discourse on the move appropriately. Hugh Rolo of Social Investment Business (website), and a shareholder, spoke about possible funding and stipulated the rising of the Pier 'from the ashes' was just the first phase of building this 21st century pier, and now we need to get to the second phase. Then Jess Steele passionately described to us how Friends of Hastings Pier see this second phase and described their plan, which looks at the business in a Bottom/Top way, the fabric of the pier (bottom) should be owned by the community, and the working business (top) should be a profitable business, most likely privately run, and pay rent to the Bottom.

Talking about passionate, next came, I think his name is Adam Wide, who previously worked for Openwide Investments for whom he helped to turn round the business of two piers, Cromer and Bournemouth (website), cruise ships, and who knows what else, to call him enthusiastic is an understatement. He looked lively, and many jokes were shared about his 'deckchair' shirt, but his enthusiasm got me thinking, yes, with people like him involved the Pier can make money! He suggested ideas about the possibilities for entertainment and activities on the Pier, and what would bring in the money for Phase 2, whilst Alex de Rijke, architect of the 21st century Hastings Pier, from drMM Architects (website), and winner of the 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize (see blog), showed us the potential for dynamic new structures on the Pier, including keeping a large open space for larger concerts, and promenading of course, and an innovative smaller structure which could hold up to 500 for indoor activities.

I can't do justice to the amount of excellent work put in by the participants, you really need to get in touch with the Friends of Hastings Pier, better, join them in their battle, apparently they meet every Friday on the Pier, or go to their facebook page or twitter page, or email them at friendsofhastingspier@gmail.com. 

As I alluded to earlier, there was little friction at the meeting, mostly strong support, one quite angry shareholder present asked why all shareholders hadn't been contacted, she hadn't found out about this meeting until she had discussed it with someone when she visited the Pier. However, when it was explained by Jess that it was the Administrators blocking Friends of Hastings Pier contacting shareholders, as they had the list of shareholders and wouldn't share the list (is this indicative of the apparent contempt the Administrators hold towards shareholders?), and she seemed placated. Though what this does show is that not everyone uses social media, so, if you know a shareholder who is unaware of what is going on, please share the knowledge and suggest they contact Friends of Hastings Pier urgently!

After a number of questions and answers, Jess Steele reiterated the 5 principles they had written down, one of which is that the Pier should not be sold off into private hands but be owned by the community. Indeed, as I've said before, it was private enterprise that nearly destroyed the Pier! She also explained that the Administrators need to extend the time limit for the £1million funds request (blog) to 30 days, to make this a more reasonable target, good luck with that!

Now, if anyone has money stashed by, or knows someone who has, or a business or charity that could pledge support, please get in touch with Friends of Hastings Pier at friendsofhastingspier@gmail.com and/or pledge at the same email address, subject: Pledge.