‘You may as well have done it on the back of a fag packet down the pub,’ one councillor said
Victoria Pier will be demolished with a replacement constructed(Image: Katie Pugh)
Opposition councillors have criticised Hull City Council‘s public consultation on Victoria Pier. One Labour councillor has suggested the plans ‘could have been drawn up by her five-year-old granddaughter’. In response, the council leader said they are “not what the final design is going to look like”.
Earlier this month, the council launched a public consultation with potential designs for a new pier after confirming the existing one will be demolished. The pier, which stretches out into the Humber, has been closed to the public since 2022 when inspections revealed it was in very poor condition.
The consultation includes three potential outline design options for the public to vote on. The chosen option will then be developed further into a detailed design.
At a full council meeting held on March 19, a motion was presented by Labour‘s Cllr Haroldo Herrera-Richmond who called on the council to commit to only demolish the existing pier once a fully-funded design plan is in place for its replacement. The call was made amid fears among Labour councillors that the council could demolish the pier and a replacement would be delayed or never come to fruition.
Labour councillors mocked the designs in the consultation during the full council meeting. The Labour leader Cllr Daren Hale likened the designs to something made by AI, a comment which fellow Labour councillor Patrick Wilkinson described as doing “a disservice to AI”.
Cllr Wilkinson added: “When you look at those designs, they’re woeful. You may as well have done it on the back of a fag packet down the pub.
“There’s no detail in them whatsoever. It gives a basic shape of a pier. Voting on a basic shape, that’s not a consultation, it’s a cry for help!” Cllr Karen Wood, also a Labour member, said the designs “could have been done by my five-year-old granddaughter”.
Responding to such comments, the leader of the council, Liberal Democrat Cllr Mike Ross, told the chamber: “If you think that’s what the final thing is going to look like, then I suggest you might need to think again. Obviously, that’s not what the final design is going to look like, rest assured.”
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Cllr Ross added: “There will be a final design and this administration, and this party on this side of the chamber is committed to making sure that the heritage of this city is honoured and protected. We do want to make the most of the assets in the city and this has to be part of that offer. There will be a replacement for this, in time, and it needs to be done right.”
The council leader added an amendment to the Labour motion which included criticism of past Labour councils for their record on the pier. The amendment called out the “failure of previous administrations to invest in even basic maintenance to prolong the life of this structure”.
Cllr Ross’ amendment was voted against by Labour councillors but was forced through by the majority Lib Dem group in the council. Councillors then backed the overall motion, meaning the council has committed to only support the pier’s demolition when a fully-funded design plan with milestones and timescales is prepared.
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