Hastings Forum

Sadly the pier has gone. The latest in a line of buildings that have been abandoned and left to rot by their owners. I'm sick to the back teeth of hearing the council whine that there's nothing they can do about it and making feeble excuses. The Observer building, the old Priory Road popcorn factory, the boarded up pubs and all the other abandoned buildings in and around the town should immediately be declared fire hazards and their owners should be made to employ local unemployed people as night watchmen to try to ensure that nothing like this will ever happen again. If they don't have the power to do this, then our MP should stop whining about dog poo and demand that the law is changed ASAP so they can. Faced with a wage bill that will wipe out the profit from writing empty buildings off as tax losses, perhaps they will finally get off their overpaid back sides and do something useful with them.

Take a ganda up the side of the Observer building. Thousands of highly inflamable plastic bottles lying just below an opening. It'd only take one match and a squirt of lighter fuel.

Then go to the town hall and demand something is done before that goes poof as well. Then phone the press, the TV company and anyone else you can think of.

HI Terry ,so sad about the pier ,memories of the happy times playing on the beach with the pier insight.I took it for granted that it was there ,a bit like you would your loved one ,and then their gone .I drove passed by accident and got caught up in the traffic.SUCH SAD DAY FOR HASTINGS.I hope something can be done ,we need a mircle.

Hello Terry, the pier looked tragic today. The smoke was so thick yesterday I couldn't really see much. I agree with your comments about empty buildings - so dangerous. Arson attacks are becoming more and more common - sign of the times I suppose. Whatever they build next let's hope it's made from fireproof materials.

This picture was taken on Tuesday 05-10-2010, the same day as the pier burnt. It was taken through a hole in the side of the Observer building and shows just a few of the plastic bottles and other inflammable rubbiush inside the building. This is a golden opportunity for any nutter with a can of lighter fluid and a match. It's an opportunity that should not exist.

How many other empty and abandoned buildings have piles of junk mail just inside their letterboxes, just waiting for someone with a grudge, an anti-social streak or whatever.

Another photo available at http://www.guerillaphotography.fotopic. ... 36518.html shows barrels stored inside the building containing I know not what. Does anyone know what chemicals or other substances may lie within that building?

Remember, this building is right next door to the public library where millions of highly inflamable and irreplacable books and documents are stored. Just think about the consequences of a fire in this abandoned building. Something needs to be done immediately.

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