Student Hopes His Facebook Video Will Stop The Owner Of Eastbourne Pier Charging Visitors

Student Hopes His Facebook Video Will Stop The Owner Of Eastbourne Pier Charging Visitors
Photo by John Phillips/UK Press via Getty Images
Photo by John Phillips/UK Press via Getty Images
John Phillips via Getty Images

A Sussex student has turned to Facebook in an attempt to persuade the new owner of Eastbourne Pier not to introduce an entrance fee.

Luke Gardner, 19, had studied creative media at college which helped him create the video letter to local hotel owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar, who bought the fire-damaged pier last month.

Entrance to the pier has been free for decades but Gulzar The Independent he was considering introducing a nominal fee of £1 or £2.

Gardner's Facebook video has now been shared more than 114,000 times and he said the suggested fee would "ruin the experience".

In the short clip he tells Gulzar: "Before you start changing the name and initiating a small fee to walk on it, just think of the people who watched it burn that day.

"The pier didn't just burn, so did people's memories and their childhood."

In July 2014 about a third of the pier, which dates back to 1870, was destroyed in a blaze. Part of the pier was reopened that September but a section remains empty.

Gardner told HuffPost UK: "I saw quite a few people shared the same feelings about the pier and nothing else was happening about it.

"I've had ex-residents from Eastbourne getting hold me and telling their memories of the pier."

Feel free to share it, something I've been working on over the last couple of weeks.

Posted by Luke Gardner on Thursday, 26 November 2015
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