This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Campaigners fighting to save Hastings pier for the community are “devastated and furious” over its sale to a businessman for a fraction of what it cost to rebuild.

The Eastbourne hotelier Sheikh Abid Gulzar was reported to have paid £50,000 for the pier, which was rebuilt with £12.4m of lottery money but went into administration last November.

Friends of Hastings Pier had raised more than £477,000 of a £500,000 target to buy the pier and keep it open to the public for free. A company was willing to set up a joint venture with FOHP to secure the future of the structure.

After news of the sale to Gulzar emerged late on Friday night, angry locals gathered on the pier to offer to buy it off him for £65,000. He refused the offer.

“We are devastated but we are also furious,” James Chang, a spokesman for FOHP, said. “Why would the administrators mess us about leading us to believe we have time and the chance to buy the pier if we haven’t.

“Everyone is very upset. We now have a lot of questions about how this was handled.”

In a statement explaining its decision, the administrator Adam Stephens said its main concern had been to “find a viable buyer for this important heritage asset”.



During an impromptu protest on Wednesday at what residents call the “people’s pier”, Jess Steele, a leading FOHP campaigner, said there was a clear alternative to private ownership.

She said the group had found a commercial partner willing to enter into a joint venture to secure the future of the grade II-listed pier, which won an architectural award last year.

Gulzar, 73, nicknamed “Goldfinger” for his love of the colour, upset residents in neighbouring Eastbourne after he painted part of the pier, which he also owns, gold without planning permission.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sheikh Abid Gulzar on Eastbourne pier. Photograph: Brighton Pictures/Rex/Shutterstock

He has banned dogs, cycles and fishing from the pier.



FOHP has said the Hastings pier should belong to the community and needs to break even, not make a profit.



Gulzar said he aimed to turn the pier into a “world class attraction and, more than anything, to make it profitable”.

He added: “I want to get a top restaurant on the pier, but we have to see about planning permission. There will be other plans to reveal in the near future which will also help business.”

• This article was amended on 18 June 2018 to remove an incorrect reference to there being an entrance fee at Eastbourne pier.

