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It has survived fires, bankruptcy and scandal, not to mention 153-years of lashing British weather, but now Hastings’s “peerless pier”, as it was hailed at its grand opening, faces a new twist in its turbulent tale, as it goes on the market.

Facing a £150,000 fraud trial, the controversial current owner of the pier, the self-styled Sheikh Abid Gulzar, is planning to “dispose of” the landmark, the council says, sparking a rush to bring the Victorian structure back into public ownership.

Hastings Borough Council confirmed it had received formal notification from Mr Gulzar that he intends to sell the pier, and had notified the group which nominated it as an asset of community value, to see if they are interested in submitting a bid.

The group, Friends of Hastings Pier, has told The Independent it is “optimistic”, it can succeed in bringing the pier back under community control.

“It’s early days at the moment,” Friends of Hastings Pier spokesperson James Chang said this week. “I only got the email from the council on Friday afternoon.”

open image in gallery Hastings Pier owner Sheikh Abid Gulzar is looking to sell the attraction ( Brighton Pictures/Shutterstock )

Conceding that the pier in its current state could “have a liability of several million”, Mr Chang