The buyer with grand designs for perfect sea views
High drama in the auction room as Flamborough’s landmark coastguard station is sold for £170,000
FOR 60 years it was the perfect lookout, over the green flanks of a golf course, to the white cliffs of Flamborough and the North Sea beyond.
Properties like Flamborough Coastguard Station, made controversially redundant in 2010 – and the views that come with it – rarely come up for sale.
So there was massive interest when it came under the hammer this Thursday in London.
It was high drama as it came down to just two bidders, eventually going to Wetherby businessman Zahid Iqbal for £170,000. He hopes to turn it into a “cutting-edge” home.
There was extra motivation for Mr Iqbal ,whose daughter Sana had just given birth to his first grandson.
Mr Iqbal, from Collingham near Wetherby, told The
Yorkshire Post: “I was running out from the hospital, bidding and then rushing back.”
The thought of his new grandson, born a month prematurely, was in his mind as the bidding crept higher.
He said: “We didn’t go to London because we have been doing night shifts at the hospital. Ben was born on Tuesday and that’s what pushed us. It is somewhere that is really fantastic for children.
“We were hoping to pick it up for £140,000 to £150,000 but then it shot past £150,000.
“I bid at £170,000 and mentally gave myself one more bid. For me this is not a commercial venture, it is something I feel passionately about.
“To be honest I’ve been looking for something on the East Coast for quite a while, something that was within an hour and a half ’s drive of where I live.
“It’s very rare that you come across something that has that kind of view.
“In the short term we are looking to use it predominantly at the weekend and long term with a view to using it permanently.
“It’s a building which has a lot
Ben was born on Tuesday and that is what really pushed us. Zahid Iqbal, winning bidder for the former coastguard station.
of sentimental attachment for local people.
“Whatever happens to it it’s not a decision for one person, you have to talk to local people, to the parish council.
“It needs to be bought back into use. We want it as a home and think that’s the best use for it.”
Associate Zoe Baxter, at Allsop auctioneers, said there was lots of demand for similar properties with seaside views, but very few came on the market. She said: “Here we probably only sell one or two a year. They don’t come up very often.
“I think it sold for what it is worth – it depends what people want it for. These properties are always popular.”
Former police officer Rick Hall – who was watching Thursday’s auction online – bought the old lifeboat station in Withernsea two years ago.
It had been a dance school and was just about derelict, but had many original features, including the old spiral staircase which someone climbed when a ship was in distress to ring a bell.
The Old Boatshed is now a successful bar.
Mr Hall said: “We thought it would take us three months, but once I ripped it apart, it was over 100 years old, there were problems; the floors were rotten, it needed a new damp course put in, all new electrics, all new water works.
“It took me 11 months in the end.”
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency put the coastguard station up for sale after making it redundant in a move which saw it transfer the Flamborough coastguard operation to nearby Bridlington.
More than 1,000 people signed petitions against the closure, amid concerns it would hit emergency response times and put lives at risk.
Schoolchildren at the village primary school also wrote to protest.
However, it was to no avail and the coastguard station closed in April 2010.
The MCA plans to retain the mast and the telecommunications box, which is in the garage of the property.