A Monthly Publication

By John Maiden 

In early September a Civic Society colleague sent me an email he had received from someone who is contemplating a move to Hunstanton. I am always interested to learn how visitors and newcomers see my home town, but this person has already concluded that the Civic Society is spending too much time on trying to correct mistakes made by the borough council (BCKLWN) in its handling of issues relating to The Green and the 'Pier'. He has even asked for an assurance that I am not seeking a new Pier! 

  There is no denying the fact that within hours of the fire on 18th May 2002 I did write to the Lynn News suggesting that the Pier site should be returned to its original purpose as the entrance to a real Pier! However, as soon as the charred remains of the dreadful 1960's Pier entrance building had been removed from the site, I petitioned with thousands of others for The Green to be left open, as originally intended by Henry Le Strange when he first published his plans for the new town of Hunstanton St Edmund in the 1840's.

  My position remains the same now as it was then, which is why the application to register the whole of The Green as a Town Green was made in my name and why I asked to be joined as an 'interested party' in an application to the High Court by Mr Henry Moreton for a judicial review of the Borough Council's decision not to execute a Deed of Variation relieving him of the condition in his lease stipulating that the Pier site must be used for a Pier and nothing else whatsoever.  

  In 2002 thousands of petitioners and hundreds of individual letters were totally ignored by BCKLWN, just as representations from the Town Council and the Civic Society have been ignored ever since, so borough council leader, Nick Daubney must be made aware that BCKLWN cannot continue to ignore a legally binding Covenant, imposed for the benefit of Hunstanton Inhabitants and visitors by Bernard Le Strange on 20th July 1955. This Covenant makes it abundantly clear that no permanent building may be erected on The Green, other than an entrance to the Pier!

  The Conservative manifesto for the local elections in May 2007 seemed to recognize this fact, because it promised to seek the reinstatement of Hunstanton Pier!  I am not a member of the local Conservatives, so I should not be blamed for the inclusion of a Pier in their manifesto!  However, on 28th January 2008, when former Ward Councillor for Hunstanton, Bryan Bullivant, realised that it had taken Cllr Daubney's administration less than a year to ditch the manifesto commitment to include a replacement Pier in the built-environment masterplan for the regeneration of Hunstanton, he wrote to me as follows:

"The Council was required to set up an Asset Management Group with the purpose to manage assets in the most commercially advantageous way; I was a member of that group in my capacity as property cabinet member. The Audit Commission who have audit powers were critical of the fact that we hadn't set it up when Government read the riot act to councils about management of assets in market best practice way. I assume that RS [Cllr Richard Searle] is now my replacement and he has the responsibility to keep officers on the right road. I am so angry at this proposed action [to vary the Pier lease] that it seems to waste my 4 years [as a borough councillor]."

  On 4th February 2008, Hunstanton Town Council held a special meeting in the Town Hall and, after hearing representations from the public, Town Councillors passed a resolution asking BCKLWN not to vary the Pier lease. The following day Cllr Daubney's Cabinet agreed that the Council's Legal Services Manager would only agree to vary the Pier lease if it would "be in the Council's interest to do so in consultation with the Leader and Ward members for the area..."

  From comments made by two Ward councillors at a meeting of the Town Council on September 11th it became apparent that they had not been consulted on the draft settlement agreed between a Hunstanton Pier Company (HPC) and BCKLWN. This revelation warranted a vote of 'no confidence' in BCKLWN, but a letter from Ray Harding, Chief Executive of BCKLWN was of even greater concern to me, because on the subject of The Green he wrote as follows: "A wide ranging discussion between us concerning this area of Hunstanton would be beneficial once the dispute between the Borough and the Hunstanton Pier Company has been resolved."

  Mr Harding's letter, in response to a letter from the Town Clerk sent on 17th March, was dated Friday 31st July, thereby ensuring that it was unlikely to be discussed until the next scheduled meeting in mid September. These delaying tactics have been employed by BCKLWN ever since 2002 when the Town Council was excluded from consultations on the legality of allowing the CHS 'hangar' to be erected on The Green. It was left to the borough council's own Legal Services Manager, Christopher Potter, in a report dated 20th October 2004, to reveal that BCKLWN had acted unlawfully by disposing of open space, which should have been protected from development by the 1955 Covenant.

  My application to register The Green as a Town Green is being opposed by BCKLWN and by Henry Moreton's HPC. This may result in a public hearing at which Norfolk County Council (NCC) will decide whether or not The Green should be registered. The facts that will emerge as a result of my application, regardless of the outcome, are likely to embarrass BCKLWN and could lead to serious consequences for those officers and members who have tried unsuccessfully to draw a line under their failure to protect The Green from unlawful encroachment by a major new development, which cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as a Pier!

  Without waiting for NCC to consider my application and the objections to registration, it is important to hold a meeting at which the Inhabitants of Hunstanton can listen to the arguments for and against Cllr Daubney's deal with Mr Moreton. This will provide an opportunity to remind BCKLWN that any lawful solution to the Pier problem will have to include the removal of the 'non-pier' from The Green.

  Since it will be up to BCKLWN to decide whether to achieve this outcome by negotiation or litigation, perhaps the process should start with an investigation into the exact status of Henry Moreton's HPC, which he seems to have acquired simply in order to benefit from a peppercorn rent of £1 a year and only found out about the terms of the Pier Lease and the 1955 Covenant after he had bought the 'hangar' on The Green!    

Editor’s note: Please turn to page 12 for details of the Public Meeting on 13th October called by the Hunstanton Civic Society.   

Saturday 31st October - 7.30pm Celebrity Concert in the Marble Hall, Holkham Hall

Baroque Music from the Courts of Europe

Four of the most celebrated musicians in their field present a wonderful programme of music by Telemann, Bach and Handel. Performed by Pavlo Beznosiuk on violin, Lisa Beznosiuk on flute, Paula Chateauneuf on archlute and Richard Tunnicliffe on cello. Tickets £22.50