The view from Hastings pier towards St Leonards-On-Sea. The pier has recently (April 2016) been reopened after extensive rebuilding owing to a fire razing it to the ground in 2010. The council compulsorily purchased it from its owners in 2012, and the so-called "people's pier" is now in the hands of the Hastings Pier Charity and more than 3,000 shareholders, who bought into the project at £100 a share.