Scheveningen pier is to be sold at a public auction, the official receiver dealing with the bankrupt property said in a press release.

In the meantime, The Hague city council will carry out essential repairs on the pier, receiver Marc Udink is quoted as saying by the NRC.

National and foreign firms are invited to bid for the pier, but the winner will have to agree specific conditions with the local authority, the paper said.

‘As far as we are concerned, the pier can be extended or rebuilt,’ city council executive Marnix Norder is quoted as saying. ‘We have had talks with various interested parties over the past few years but there was no serious option among them. We will only agree to a new owner who really wants to invest.’

Safety

Scheveningen pier was declared bankrupt at the beginning of this year after its owners, hotel and catering family Van der Valk, failed to find a buyer.

The pier was put up for sale in March but parts of it were closed to the public in November because it is no longer considered safe.

The Van der Valks bought the pier in 1991 for the symbolic amount of one guilder.

The current pier dates from 1961. The original pier, designed in 1900 and which stretched 380 metres into the sea, was destroyed by the Germans during World War II.