Civil Society has reported on how the local group that failed to buy Hastings pier has launched a campaign to scrutinise the laws around community assets that have being sold off without consideration for local community interests, to prevent future community assets being sold off cheaply to private owners.
Civil Society writes:
Hastings Pier Charity, a charitable industrial and provident society which previously owned the pier, went into administration in November 2017.
It had been given £12.7m of Heritage Lottery Fund money to rebuild the pier, which had been destroyed in a fire, and had raised hundreds of thousands from a community share offer.
Gulzar subsequently bought the pier for £50,000 despite local group Friends of Hastings Pier (FOHP) raising more than £500,000 to keep the pier in community ownership….
Call for a parliamentary review
… Amber Rudd, MP for Hastings and Rye, has passed FOHP’s request for an inquiry to Clive Betts, chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government select committee in September.
Her letter said: “My constituents are concerned that a perceived risk that intended benefits of £14million of public funding have potentially been undermined.”
Betts said in his response that scrutiny of the Localism Act would likely have to follow the government’s publication of a memorandum assessing the operation of the act so far, which he hoped would happen soon…
Pier closed until March
Following a small electrical fire, Hastings pier, which won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling prize for its design in 2017, closed for repairs and improvements in December and is not expected to open until at least March.
Local residents organised a community event, If You Love The Pier Then Join The Queue, earlier this month calling for the pier to be reopened.
About 250 people including Rudd attended the event but there has been no subsequent update on whether the pier will reopen any earlier.
Now, FOHP has begun a campaign to scrutinise the laws around community assets that have being sold off without consideration for local community interests.
For background see the FOHP website , FOHP on Twitter and Facebook and the IHBC NewsBlogs
