Comic Jo Brand has lent her support to a nationwide campaign to save Hastings Pier, which was devastated by fire last year.
British Tourism Week has teamed up with Coast magazine to launch the campaign to raise funds to restore the Pier, which is one of Britain’s seaside landmarks.
The new campaign is calling on anyone who would like to see the pier restored to take part in a sponsored Great Pier Promenade to help return the Pier to its former state.
The aim is for people to walk as many British piers as possible over the spring and summer to highlight the campaign and raise money towards restoration work.
The Great Pier Promenade will launch on Saturday March 12 by Hastings Pier, during a ‘Party on the Prom’, which will include a market and performances by local poets, musicians and comedians.
This event will coincide with VisitBritain’s UK-wide celebration of piers, Party on the Pier, at the start of British Tourism Week, when all kinds of activities will take place on piers around the country.
Straight-talking comic Jo Brand said: "Every seaside should have its pier, that symbol of fun, frivolity and, for me, many nights spent drunkenly dancing at its far end to the popular bands of the time. When I got chucked out of home at 17, I rented a bedsit overlooking Hastings Pier, so it featured in my landscape for a number of years. I’d hate to see it disappear forever."
By Linsey McNeill
