Turnstone: Hunstanton writer John Maiden remises about football and discusses the town’s green

In his weekly column, Hunstanton writer John Maiden reminisces about football and discusses the town’s green…

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend a reunion of the Norwich City Milk Cup-winning team, which took place at Carrow Road on Sunday, May 4.

It would have been good to hear memories of that special day at Wembley in 1985 when Norwich beat Sunderland by the only goal of the game.

I would have enjoyed reminding manager Ken Brown of the day when he brought the Milk Cup to Hunstanton, accompanied by a Norwich City team that beat Hunstanton 20 - 0 on the Recreation Ground.

A heavy shower failed to dampen the spirits of either team, but it was enough to see the Norwich team coach get stuck in the mud.

We promptly turned the delayed departure to our advantage. The game had been part of my SAFE - Soccer As Family Entertainment - Project and was sponsored by the newly opened Oasis leisure centre.

Therefore, I simply took Ken and his players for a surprise visit to the town's latest visitor attraction, which has been equally popular with local inhabitants for the past 40 years.

It is just a pity that in a Victorian town, which has retained many of its buildings that are over a hundred years old, the Oasis building needs to be replaced after just 40 years.

It could have been worse if Hunstanton Urban District Council had followed through with plans for a much larger leisure centre to replace the Blue Lagoon open-air swimming pool in the years leading up to local government reorganisation in 1974.

On this occasion, Hunstanton Ratepayers & Residents Association forced HUDC to change course, but only after the chairman, Gordon Cracknel, had been obliged to use his casting vote to pull the plug.

Of course, this came too late to save the Blue Lagoon, the railway station, or the Sandringham Hotel.

Now we are facing another round of local government reorganisation, which makes me wonder if there is a real danger of the 17-year delay between the demolition of our swimming pool and the opening of the leisure centre being repeated as a result of the latest reorganisation.

One thing that really must be rectified, before Hunstanton residents and visitors to our town are left even further away from the decision makers, is the protection given to their right to use all of The Green, including the promenade, as public open space.

Attention will focus on The Green when the anniversary of the 1955 Restrictive Covenant is celebrated on July 20.

I have challenged West Norfolk Council to comply with this legally binding Covenant, but judging from the lack of a response to my emails from anyone at King's Court, I am seriously considering legal action, based on the fact that the Honourable Mr Justice Blake joined me as an Interested Party to the case involving the Council and the Hunstanton Pier Company in 2009.

Unfortunately, the Council agreed to a pathetic out-of-court settlement before I could submit my evidence in court.

In conclusion, I will leave my readers with a true story about the end of Hunstanton Pier. It is not uncommon to hear people say how sad it was to see the entire pier washed away by a storm in January 1978.

However, the fact is that the pier head was not swept away, because the 1939 fire that destroyed the pier pavilion had exposed the tops of the hollow piles supporting the pier.

After the war, Horace Brooke, chairman of the Hunstanton Pier Company, had these hollow metal piles filled with concrete. This fact was confirmed last week by Peter Brooke, son of Horace.

In 1974, West Norfolk District Council replaced Hunstanton UDC as the freehold owner of the pier, but it became a Grade II Listed Building in 1975.

The council had to seek permission from central government before any part of it could be demolished. In the manner of a modern-day Pilate, the relevant department washed its hands of the decision, and on September 12, 1978 a council planning officer decided the pier head could be demolished, instead of being reconnected by a proper pier to a Victorian-style entrance building on The Green.

The current 'hangar' has no right to exist since it is no longer an entrance to Hunstanton Pier.