Friday, March 24th 2006. 

Articles reproduced with kind permission of the Evening Echo newspaper.

The  text on this page is an exact duplication of that which appeared in the newspaper articles.

Swine Plans Ready to Try Again
by Geoff Percival, political reporter

Ambitious plans for a rollercoaster could be back on the drawing board for Southend Pier.  The Swine rollercoaster is the centrepiece of multimillion-pound redevelopment plans for the pier, which are due to be submitted to Southend Council next week by developers Epic World Leisure. Tony Garner, managing director of the company, based in Weston Road,  Southend,  is on the verge of finishing an environmental impact assessment for his Atlantis City scheme of bars, restaurants and other attractions at the pier head. 

The rollercoaster alone was originally granted planning permission and backed by the council's former Lib Dem and Labour administration in 2000.  The planning permission for the scheme was due to expire last year, when Epic World Leisure sought a five-year renewal. The company was then told by the Council to produce an environmental impact assessment, which would show any damage likely to the estuary and its wildlife. 

Mr Garner said: "We are still keen to carry out our development at the pierhead, despite the fire in October.  Under the proposals, most of the buildings involved in the fire would have been demolished anyway.  Funding is in place with banks who are prepared to back us and we hope that by putting in our complete assessment, the Council will now talk to us".

Mr Garner's agent, Bernard Gooding of Leigh-based Bernard Gooding Associates, said: "We find it incredible the council is not actually welcoming us with open arms". 

Council leader Anna Waite said: "Any planning application will take its usual course through the planning committee"

It's time we gave Tony's pier plans serious thought.
by Geoff Percival, political reporter

Tony Garner, the Thorpe Bay businessman who runs Epic World Leisure has had a love affair with the pier for a long time.  His determination to keep pushing to do something on the town's most famous landmark deserves a fair hearing if nothing else.  Many other people would have walked away years ago and no longer bothered to think about the pier which following the last fire in October is rapidly in danger of becoming a complete white elephant.  It must have been particularly galling for him to watch the scheme by the Riviera Consortium based in Bournemouth, fall apart after the amount which had been spent on putting it in place.  This arose despite warnings about the company and its previous involvement with Bournemouth pier which had been circulating in  Southend for months previously.

Once repair work has been completed on the pier and all the insurance issues have been settled, then the council needs to sit down and talk logically to those who really have in interest in achieving something in the town. At all costs, there must be no going back to employing expensive consultants to come up with what turned out to be a disastrous decision. 

Tony Garner is not alone in putting forward proposals for the pier which are worthy of more local consideration.  Adventure Island boss Philip Miller, seafront entrepreneur John Remblance and McGinty's Bar owner Fran McGinty have all made proposals at different times.  There are people who have a personal interest in making the landmark work for the benefit of the town and are not going to walk away, leaving yet another pig in a poke. 

Before the new pierhead was destroyed in 1976, national firm Trust House Forte had walked away from running it.  It was left to local businesswoman Myra Fidgeon, who now runs the Regency Hotel in Royal Terrace, to pick up the pieces and keep the pierhead running.  The moral has to be - keep it local and make sure the pier is in the hands of those who love it like the majority of the town.

Echo comment.
Swine is still a far off dream
Author not accredited

The Swine just won't go away. Down the years, the giant rollercoaster scheme has entered and left the Southend radar at regular intervals. It may not actually have been built, but it has become as much of a local presence as Southend rock. 

Tony Garner, the never-say-die businessman behind the scheme, has seen his giant brainchild sent packing for a variety of reasons.  Yet he and his Swine just keep coming back.

Mr Garner's agent said, in a tone of puzzled hurt: "We find it incredible the Council is not welcoming us with open arms." 

Yet there are a variety of reasons why the council needs to be cautious.  They include issues of finance, technical feasibility, parking, sea air, environment, access, and health and safety. The Swine could prove to be a vast international tourist attraction - or the white elephant of all white elephants.  Still, you have to admire the Swine for its comeback ability and it has undoubtedly acquired a life of its own.  Nobody has yet ridden the Swine, except in dreams.  Yet it still manages to be a source of perpetual amusement.