Observer hands over 3,000 strong Hastings Pier petition to council leader
A petition signed by 3,000 Observer readers demanding the council acts to save Hastings Pier has been handed to the new leader of the local authority.
Councillor Jeremy Birch accepted the petition this week and vowed to do all he could to help the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust make a success of the currently closed attraction.
In August of last year - with the town suffering its third summer without a pier - the Observer decided to act.
As part of a Save Our Pier campaign, we launched an online petition urging the local authority to start working more closely with the ambitious community trust.
On behalf of the vast majority of our readers we demanded the local authority start the procedure to compulsory purchase the pier from Ravenclaw, allowing the trust to begin attracting funding.
The petition also urged the council to, once funding is in place, complete the CPO and then hand the ownership over to the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust.
We did so mindful of the fact the town had lost out on an estimated 750,000 visitors and more than 9million in tourist cash.
And, in the months since, almost 3,000 have signed up in agreement.
Speaking after accepting the petition, Cllr Birch said: "I would like to thank the Observer for showing us through this petition just how seriously the people of Hastings feel about the pier.
"A report is due to be going to the council's cabinet in July detailing the feasibility of the trust's plans and I hope we can enact the CPO from that meeting.
"It is good to see how many people care about the future of the pier - I just hope we can live up to the expectations of residents and play our part in giving the pier a real future."
Cllr Birch also praised the trust, which used a recent 75,000 grant from the previous government to hire a raft of experts to complete the much needed report.
One of the trustees, Jess Steele, said: "Thank you to the Observer, to the 3,000 people who signed this petition and to everyone who is helping in lots of different ways.
"Local support is the key to the pier's future - not least in convincing our funders that people care.
"It's also what has kept us going through the long campaign and will give us backbone for the challenges still ahead."
And the Observer's editor-in-chief Keith Ridley thanked readers for backing the newspaper's campaign.
He said: "As a local paper it is our job to get behind important issues like this one and it is great to see so many of our readers have joined us in demanding a better future for what was one of Hastings most popular attractions.
"Hopefully, with the council working with the trust, it won't be too long before the pier is open for business again. A seaside town without a pier just does not seem right."
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Weather for Hastings
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
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Light showers
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