Skegness Pier Imminent Danger of Collapse

By Angela Gooch on February 24th, 2008

SKEGNESS Pier is in imminent danger of collapse after high tides ravaged the support stanchions causing them to slip by two feet.
Workmen were hurrying to move fairground rides to a more secure position as the structure was declared unsafe.
A 30 foot section of the stump of the pier, which remains after the 1.978 high tides broke it in two, had its supports left dangling. The sea had eroded vast amounts of sand, causing the slip.
The drama started at 7 pm on Thursday night. But it was not until the tide went out at midnight that the nightwatchman realised something was wrong.
The rides are owned by the Skegness Pier Company and on Friday both the police and Company Director Belinda Taupin warned sightseers to stay away.
“The structure is unsafe and anybody coming to have a look should not go under the pier because there is a possibility of its collapsing,” she said.
The extent of the problem was highlighted by the position of a number of white marks which had been painted on the pier to show the sand levels. These indicated that the level of the sand had dropped by about four feet since the end of last season.
This Wednesday a consultant engineer came to take a look at the pier.
R. G. Mitchell’s finance director. Mr Mike Greenhalgh said: “The engineer advised us to lengthen the piles and re-jack them to their original level. The cause seems to have been the new sea defences to the north of the pier accelerating the sand erosion.
But Mr Greenhalgh assured summer visitors to the resort that the pier will be open again complete with fairground rides. “The weight of the rides did not really have any effect on the slip,” he added.
All of the rides on the pier, which incude dodgems, electronic shooting gallery, Star Wheel, Astroliner and radio-controlled boats, will not be affected by the slip.
The latest chapter in the Pier’s demise attracted a great deal of interest among townspeople. Many of them reminisced sadly about the halcyon days of the 106 year old structure.

Picture left: Decking on the Pier collapsed and support stanchions were left in mid-air.

Picture right: Steps leading onto the Pier were lft dangling above the ground and concrete platforming broken up.