For those who aren’t aware, South Parade Pier is Grade II listed building which means Portsmouth City Council has legal powers to order repairs, however they have declined to use them. The pier has had no major repairs since new owners bought it in 2010 and is now in a state of progressive collapse and boarded up by Portsmouth City Council due to it being unsafe. New operators have claimed since February that they own the pier but have not actually purchased it, according to latest information from the Land Registry.
South Parade Trust have organised more than 12,000 people have now signed a petition for listed building repairs to be ordered at the pier. The Trust announced the petition milestone this week after a phenomenal weekend of canvassing at the Victorious Festival. They collected nearly four signatures a minute throughout the entire weekend.
South Parade Trust are a community group calling for full, immediate, end-to-end repairs at the pier to allow the restoration of safe public access to the whole pier. Chairman Leon Reis explains “Before Victorious, nearly 8,000 people had signed our petition – a great success in its own right. But today the total is 12,195,” he said.
“It is important to note that 12,195 signatures is equivalent to more than 8% of the entire 147,000 Portsmouth electorate registered with the council – enough to swing the entire council elections next May if people voted for candidates supporting full, end-to-end repairs to the pier.
“The council continues to spend £3,000 of ratepayers’ money every week on security at the pier but does not try to recover it from the owners of the pier, nor does it attempt to enforce either of the two court orders against the owners that PCC spent ratepayers’ money on going to court to win.
“South Parade Trust only need 1,000 signatures to automatically generate a delegation to the full council and a debate on this issue, and we will continue to collect signatures until we are ready to present the petition to the council. One question the council has still to answer is: how many signatures from local people do we need before they will start to listen to what the people of this city want?”
If you have not signed the petition then you still can online via www.SouthParadeTrust.org/petition. Please take the time to sign it and share with friends.
You can follow the South Parade Trust on Facebook and Twitter @PeoplesPier1.
Catherine Taylor
Photo by Luke O’Brien
Jordan Saunders
28 August
About time something was done
Matthew Scott
28 August
The neglect of Southsea and in fact the city as a whole, has gone on for long enough. South Parade Pier is a shameful reminder of that neglect. Enough is enough. The council have a duty to its city and inhabitants to sort it out and make it a modern, iconic landmark; as it would have been when first constructed.
Leon Reis
28 August
Since strong Island kindly mentioned our petition today our total of online signatures has leapt by 70… thank you! Just another 185 for the online total to reach 7,000, so please send all your friends and family to http://www.SouthParadeTrust.org/petition
Elsewhere, people keep talking about work starting on the pier. We ask – what work? We have seen a man with a paint roller. There has been a lightweight metal spar welded across the major deck collapse on the pier’s eastern hip… our engineers don’t reckon that’ll last too long. But what else? Where are the boatsful of engineers under the pier to assess the major works? Why does the project coordinator Malcolm Belcher say fixing the end of the pier will take a 10-15 year timescale?
We fear that all this talk refers to lightweight cosmetics to get the arcade and bars open, but forgets the real pier… the bit sticking out to sea where people can walk and boats can tie up.
The new sign on the pier boasts “UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP” which just isn’t true. It names four principal contractors who appear to be three one-man bands and a two-man band (two of their company names are stated inaccurately).
The sign gives start dates for surveys and emergency works, but no end dates… indeed, it does not promise emergency works, or even the start of emergency works, but just the start of INITIAL emergency works.
The sign title itself does not proclaim a programme of works, but a “PROGRAMME OF PLANNED WORKS (anticipated)”. As well as being in lower case and brackets, “anticipated” is also in smaller print.
This is more like a post-dated IoU written in disappearing ink than any substantial promise. And of course the IoU is signed by… nobody… people who are keeping their names secret.
This is why South Parade Trust is worried about the pier. We would welcome any reputable investors with the intention of saving the people’s pier. We would help them. We just haven’t found them yet.
Leon Reis, Chairman, South Parade Trust
Roz Grant
28 August
I think it’s an embarrasment and an insult that South Parade Pier has been left to decay before our eyes. New places are going up around it that are classy, look good, bring people to the seafront and is just what Portsmouth needs.
Embarrasment because it’s an unnecessary neglected eyesore at the heart of the seafront, an insult because it means so much to so many people and the powers that be are not doing anything much about it! Do our feelings and voices not count? If it is left to rot, maybe the people of Portsmouths pride in their city will begin it rot as well!