CONTROVERSIAL tycoon Sheikh Abid Gulzar has won the fight to buy Hastings Pier.

He confirmed to the Argus at 10pm tonight that he had bought the iconic site.

The Friends of Hastings Pier had launched a community bid to keep it in public ownership after submitting a business plan to administrators and fundraising half a million pounds.

But last last night the pier was sold to businessman Sheikh Abid Gulzar, who already owns Eastbourne Pier.

Mr Gulzar, 72, registered a new company called Lions Hastings Pier Limited, naming himself as a director with an address he uses for other businesses, according to Companies House records.

He said last night: “I want to assure everyone that I will be putting my heart and soul into Hastings Pier, just as I have done at Eastbourne.

“I already work seven days a week and this I will continue, with equal emphasis on Hastings and Eastbourne, as well as my three hotels.

“I love Eastbourne Pier and I now also love Hastings Pier.

“I realise how passionate people in Hastings feel about their pier.

“I will work with the town’s people and the council; to make Hastings Pier a success which everyone in the town will feel proud of.

“I love Hastings, it seems a great place, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be at the heart of the community there.

“I can assure everyone I will be putting a great deal of time and energy into Hastings.”

Friends of the Pier spokesman James Chang had said it would be wrong for a private buyer to reap the rewards of the publicly funded campaign to resurrect the pier.

He said yesterday: “We want the pier to be run by the public and kept open for the public, somewhere that everyone can go.”

But Mr Gulzar said: “I have always been 100 per cent serious about Hastings Pier and we expressed our interest very early.

“I have put my heart and soul into Eastbourne Pier with an investment of more than £1 million since I bought it in 2015.

“Here is a wonderful new opportunity in Hastings.

“It is clear Hastings Pier needs to become viable.

“At present it isn’t and that’s why it has gone into administration.

“It’s quite simple.

“There needs to be more on Hastings Pier which brings money in.

“Running a pier is running a business and we all have to find ways of bringing in money.

“I look forward to working closely with Hastings Borough Council to make the pier the talk of the town.

“I want to bring the pier to life.

“Yes, of course I would like a gold theme,”