Thursday, 6 February 2014

Another piece of 'good news of the year' in the first trip of the year (13)




“So, any more news about the fire that took out this beautiful, Rolling Stones once played upon, Pier?”

“Yes, it turns out that unbeknown to the security guard who always sat at the land end of the Pier, come night time youths were climbing up at the other end and having illicit parties in the old ballroom”.

“There was a security guard and he didn’t know?”

“Yep, he reasoned that since no-one had walked past him then no-one was there so he never thought to check.”

“Adds a new dimension to the word security then.”

“Also it seems that this had been going on for some time.”

“Youth need somewhere to go, and an empty Victorian Ballroom out over the sea seems pretty good to me.”

“Anyhow’s one such night things got out of hand and the thing caught fire and the youth scarpered.”

“I probably would have.”

“Someone walking his dog on the beach made a citizens arrest of a couple of them.”

“I probably wouldn’t have, unless my dog was pretty big.”

“The police decided not to press charges. The kids were upset enough already and with all the local anger pointed at them they had to move school and all. It was enough.”

“So that means it’s just going to rot slowly into the sea, I guess.”

“No! The council bought it off of the previously negligent owners and donated it to the trust that had set themselves up as a ‘save-the-pier’ trust and they have collected enough money to restore it.”

“Totally?”

“Totally. Support structures have already been added – probably a good thing considering the storms we’ve been having – and work begins this spring/summer”

“Am I too late to donate? Can I sponsor a bench? Or a stanchion?”

"Let's go sea." (see) 

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