The Sun Goes Down On The West Pier

Even supporters admit: 'It'll take a miracle now to save landmark'

Adam Trimingham & Aidan Radnedge - The Argus Thursday, 29 January, 2004

THE battered remains of the West Pier will be broken up and its wreckage cleared after the dream of restoration finally collapsed.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) last night went back on its promise to grant up to £14.2 million to restore the pier after turning down a request for an extra £5.4 million.

Even the pier's most dedicated supporters admitted: "This is the end."

The West Pier Trust and Brighton and Hove City Council will today begin considering how to clear the pier away and how much it will cost.

The HLF decided that after two collapses and two fires in the past 13 months it could no longer justify spending so much public money to restore the derelict structure.

The HLF board broke the news yesterday to the trust and the city council after debating the pier this week.

Dr Geoff Lockwood, chief executive of the trust, immediately submitted his resignation but the trust's board refused to accept it.

The Noble Organisation, which owns the rival Palace Pier and had fiercely campaigned against the restoration, passed on its condolences - but said its tactics had been vindicated.

Trust officials had backed the HLF grant and matching funding was in place from private sector partner St Modwen.

But the HLF changed its mind after considering the lack of certainty about future costs, the substantial risk involved and the intense competition for funds.

Chairman Liz Forgan said: "We understand how disappointing this must be for many people and in particular for the Brighton West Pier Trust, which has fought a valiant fight over the years to save this historic structure.

"We have been long-time supporters of the campaign to save Brighton's West Pier.

"However, there is no guarantee costs won't continue to escalate and the trust has made it clear there are no other funding options after the HLF.

"This means the risks and costs involved in this project are now too big for us to bear."

Disaster

The HLF awarded its first grant of £968,000 to the trust in July 1996 for emergency stabilisation works. In May 2000 it earmarked £14.2 million for full restoration.

So far, £1.6 million of this money has been spent on emergency work and development.

A bitterly disappointed Dr Lockwood said: "We did not expect them to agree straight away to the whole £19 million but we did expect them to keep to their agreement.

"The fact they have pulled the rug from under our feet is a disaster. It is just unbelievable.

"I don't know how English Heritage can say the West Pier is the most important pier in the world and only four weeks later the HLF can take this decision.

"I feel a strong sense of personal failure and I am not used to that. I feel betrayed by those who used all means possible to stop the pier being restored. They have gone against the popular will."

The trust will consult the council and English Heritage before going back to the lottery fund to discuss any possible appeal.

However, Dr Lockwood said: "Unless the HLF changes its mind, the restoration of the West Pier is a dead duck."

Council leader Ken Bodfish said: "It's incredibly disappointing news.

"Short of a miracle, it looks like this is the end.

"We will be investigating how the wreckage is cleared and who pays for it, as well as how we now regenerate that part of the seafront."

The trust and St Modwen gained planning permission last February to restore the pier, which opened in 1866.

It is a Grade 1 listed building - one of only two piers in the country to have that status. The Argus revealed yesterday that Noble had asked the Government to de-list the structure.

There was strong opposition to the proposed restoration because it needed a large shoreline development on either side of the pier to make it viable.

Neighbours and conservation groups formed an umbrella group called Save Our Seafront.

Noble appealed to the European Court of Justice, saying a lottery grant was unfair public spending on what would be commercial competition.

Last month the Government's conservation watchdog English Heritage said it felt restoration should still go ahead.

But no work could start on the pier until lottery cash was confirmed and a harbour revision order agreed.

As this was also being opposed by Noble, a public inquiry would have been necessary.

Noble director David Biesterfield said: "My heart goes out to Geoff Lockwood and Rachel Clark.

"I know how committed they are and how much hard work they've put in. They must be feeling gutted.

"But at the same time our view is the lottery trustees have got it right.

"They've recognised this scheme was a non-starter.

"Public money is better spent elsewhere. When you're getting into the realms of £20 million - more than that allocated for entire regions elsewhere - you just can't go on."

He predicted the decision could prompt Noble to move ahead with significant improvements to the Palace Pier which had been put on hold.

The West Pier could remain a derelict scar on the face of Brighton for many years to come. In 1975 when it was closed to the public, the cost of demolishing it was put at £500.000.

The cost is now likely to be at least four times that and it will be difficult finding someone willing to pay.

Furious debates will continue over why major concerns about the restoration's cost, viability, heritage status and authenticity festered so long before finally proving fatal.

When part of the central concert hall started sliding into the sea on December 29, 2002, it was both dramatic and hugely symbolic - a disaster from which the pier would seemingly never recover.

Further collapses during the following month drew the rapt attention of onlookers, with many seizing shards washed up on the beach to keep as souvenirs - or auction off on the internet.

Another huge section of the concert hall plunged into the sea on January 21 last year.

Any joy from the following month's granting of planning permission was short-lived as a different element - fire - besieged the pier on Friday, March 29.

The first flames were spotted flickering in the pavilion at 9.45am.

The fire quickly spread and raged for three hours, devouring the pavilion and the old theatre, which once hosted performers such as Max Miller.

The main structure survived - a tribute to the excellence of the original Victorian architects. It was clear an arsonist was to blame, though he or she has never been captured - despite an anonymous letter to The Argus claiming responsibility. Half the pier was now a burnt-out hulk - and a certain symmetry was achieved when fire broke out again shortly afterwards, consuming the rest of the remaining buildings.

But the pier trust and St Modwen insisted their plans were still very much alive, especially after winning renewed backing from English Heritage last month.

When the need for public funding of £20 million emerged, sceptics pointed out that such a grant would dwarf the lottery funding for entire regions, including Northern Ireland and Wales.

In 1997, the year after the first heritage lottery grant, consultants Deloitte & Touche issued a document inviting tenders for the restoration long envisaged by the West Pier Trust.

After years of doggedly fighting the West Pier's cause, and indeed saving it from destruction by former owners, the trust must have thought the future was secured.

The tender document insisted the pier would be restored to its Twenties appearance and offer a rich variety of artistic and educational activities.

The concert, building would become a "Palm Court" restaurant, similar to the tea rooms at Bath, while a Victorian helter skelter was mooted for the deck areas.

But, crucially, there "may" be a landside building under the pier at the shore end to bring in much-needed finance. The tender document stipulated it would create an extra 37,000sqft "at least".

The "at least" proved helpfully flexible. The landside complex ultimately designed by St Modwen would have covered 112,000sqft.

Admission prices would have been £1 for the pier and £3.50 for the exhibition in the pavilion.

The consultants were confident the revamped West Pier would pull in 850,000 visitors a year, with 210,000 of them seeing the exhibition.

Oops

And they were happy to predict: "The pier now looks set to re-open in 2000." Oops.

The first team to scoop the promised 99-year lease, at a projected cost to themselves of £10 million, was Eugenius.

Not long into drawing up their own proposals, however, the team, headed by builder John Regan, told the trust the enabling development would need to be significantly larger than 37,000ft. The entente between the trust and Eugenius broke down when the scheme's private sector backers went bankrupt.

Supporters of the Eugenius scheme would claim they had been unceremoniously dumped.

And many of the architects involved remained committed to producing an alternative restoration scheme to that proposed by St Modwen, who picked up the West Pier baton.

Nick Lomax, one of the architects leading the alternative project, which included a 50,000 sq.ft. enabling development, said last night: "This has come as a shock but on one level I'm not entirely surprised. I thought the financial case was very weak. If the lottery board is just saying they don't think the St Modwen scheme is for them, we believe we have a viable alternative we can put forward.

"If there's no grant money at all then we wouldn't be interested."

In recent years the West Pier's obituary has been drafted and redrafted many times.

Now, whether it is simply left to sink completely into the sea or is finally dismantled and perhaps exhibited, even those who have struggled most devotedly for its salvation seem to be sadly saying:

Brighton's West Pier - rest in pieces.