April 1st

Gulls were gathering on the Pier today, undisturbed.

They are going to be well put out tomorrow - hopefully.

Day by day......

Last week the pier’s opening was said to be delayed until after Easter. But today (March 26) Mr Gulzar has announced the landmark will open on Monday (April 1).

Read more at: https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/hastings-pier-to-reopen-1-8864325

Commonsense - A Reckoning

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/24/end-of-pier-hastings-drmm-abid-gulzar-bust-closed?fbclid=IwAR3vrlymno8hdPl6-TP61kwaqb7Fs7tETCUdpv94Hk8iKnXn8d-43GUqUcE
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We do not know whether Gulzar carried out the due diligence that Boxpark proposed. There is no publicly available plan of what he intends to do and how he will fund it. His financial mishaps raise some doubt as to whether he has the means to sustain and invest in the pier. In March 2018, during the bidding process, the credit rating of his Eastbourne pier company was 9, which means “very high risk”. Yet Smith and Williamson stated that he had “demonstrated the best immediate financial capability as well as the operational capacity and experience, including from running Eastbourne pier.”
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There was a further potential bidder, Boxpark, creator of pop-up centres for shopping and events in London, which was ready to invest £10m. Boxpark told the administrators that it required six weeks to carry out due diligence – to find out if there were any horrors in the structure that might wreck its scheme. “We don’t know a serious property company that would not do this,” says Boxpark’s CEO Roger Wade. It reduced by half the three months it usually takes to do such work, knowing there was pressure to make a decision, but it was still too long for the administrators, so Boxpark made no bid.

Like you, I am incredibly disappointed that Hastings Pier would not be open for the end of March as originally planned. 

It is unacceptable if the pier remains closed indefinitely and I cannot support any scenario where this is the case.

Following discussions with the pier owner, I understand the extended closure comes as a result of fresh structural damage. Further repairs are now, as I understand, being conducted.

In those discussions I have been assured that the pier will be open at the start of May for the Pier Jam event.

Nonetheless, these assurances must be backed up with actions. 

I urge the owner of Hastings Pier to conduct these repairs as a priority so that the pier may open as soon as possible. Our town cannot keep experiencing delay after delay.

There must also be much improved communication with the Hastings communication from the owner. The pier belongs to our town and we must always remember that. 

Ultimately what we all want is for residents to be able to enjoy this impressive landmark of our town. 

Minor Amendment to Listing Building Entry Number 1192411 - listing enhanced with additional information (Amendment No 87)

(This does not appear to affect the actual listing, although, as winner of the 2017 Stirling Prize, perhaps it would be prescient to do so!)

The listing description for the above can be found via the following link to the Historic England web site :

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1192411

Life goes on, but not on our Pier!

A statement said: “We were due to open at the end of March but because of some storm damage reported to HBC (Hastings Borough Council) over the weekend this will be delayed by few weeks.

“Rest assured we want the pier to be open soonest even if it is for the general public to walk and enjoy to start with.”

 A spokesman for Hastings Borough Council denied asking pier staff to keep the popular attraction closed. They added: “The pier’s Facebook post appears to suggest that we have asked/required them to close, but that is not the case.

Read more at: https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/hastings-pier-to-remain-closed-over-easter-1-8854876

From the Journal of a Disappointed Man by Andrew Motion - with abject apologies

I discovered these men driving a new pile
into the pier.  There was all the paraphanalia
of chains, pulleys, cranes, ropes and, as I said,
a wooden pile, a massive affair swinging - I wish!

............ silent men ignoring me.

Speech was not something to interest them,
and if they talked at all it was like this - 
March, Valentine's Day, March!

to the obscure movements of one working
on a ladder by the water's edge, -if only! - I could tell
that for all their strength and experience
these men were up against a great difficulty.

I cannot say what.  Every one of the monsters
was silent on the subject - baffled I thought
at first, but then I realised indifferent
and tired, so tired of the whole business.

The man nearest to me, still saying nothing,.......
showed me that for all he cared the pile
could go on swinging until the crack of Doom.

and, to do the men justice, - I wish I could - their slow efforts
to overcome the secret problem did continue - or so they said -
then gradually slackened and finally ceased.

...........
Afterwards, and with a heavy kind of majesty, - no, no majesty at all! - 
he turned on his heel and walked away.

With this eclipse of interest, the incident
was suddenly closed.  First in ones and twos,
then altogether, the men followed.  That left
the pier still in mid-air, and me of course.

Were You asked to vote? I wasn't!

Within 8 weeks it is the administrators’ role to formulate administration proposals. Creditors are then asked to vote by a decision procedure to approve the administrators’ proposals.

If the administration involves a sale of all or part of the company’s business, the proceeds (after the costs of the procedure) will be distributed to creditors in a statutory order of priority. There are specific rules regarding distributions however the general order is:

1. Secured creditors
2. Preferential creditors (employees)
3. Unsecured creditors (trade creditors, suppliers, customers, HMRC)
4. Shareholders or members

Going into administration

What does going into administration mean, and how can the administration process rescue a viable business?