Eubank: I'll Save The Pier

Adam Trimingham - The Argus Friday, 30 January, 2004

FORMER world boxing champion Chris Eubank is reviving his bid to save the West Pier.

Eubank was a partner in Eugenius, a consortium dumped in favour of St Modwen by the Brighton West Pier Trust in 2000.

Now, following the Heritage Lottery Fund's sudden decision to withdraw £14 million backing for the St Modwen scheme, he has thrown his hat back into the ring.

Eubank, who lives in Hove, and his business partner John Regan are writing to the fund to ask it to reconsider their proposal.

This would be for about £13 million rather than the £19.6 million St Modwen requested to restore the Grade I listed pier.

The Eugenius scheme has a smaller commercial shoreline development which would not rise above the promenade.

St Modwen's scheme became unpopular because the beachside shopping and restaurant complex would have blocked sea views.

Mr Regan said a major leisure company was prepared to provide financial backing. He and the boxer will also write to the trust asking if it is interested in resuming negotiations.

Eubank, who once wanted to live on the pier, has been in love with the old lady of the sea for many years.

Mr Regan said: "I was staggered when I heard the trust and St Modwen were asking for so much money. We could do it for £13 million."

He said recent damage to the pier made the scheme easier because many sections would have to be replaced rather than renovated.

Eugenius - named after the pier's designer, Eugenius Birch - has remained interested despite being displaced by St Modwen four years ago.

Mr Regan said: "If they had stood by us, we would have had the pier built by now."

Architect Nick Lomax has prepared plans for the scaled-down shoreline development and is still keen on the project.

Save Our Seafront (SOS) was the umbrella organisation which opposed the St Modwen scheme.

Spokesman Derek Granger said: "I am sad the pier may not now be restored but relieved we will not have that awful enabling development. None of us is exactly jumping up and down with pleasure."

He said SOS would be behind the alternative scheme if the Heritage Lottery Fund could be persuaded to back it.

Stephen Johnson, director of operations for the fund, said the board would be prepared to look at other options.

Dr Geoff Lockwood, chief executive of the Brighton West Pier Trust, said: "It's open season for anyone to put ideas to us and the Heritage Lottery Fund."

Brighton Pavilion Labour MP David Lepper said: "I do feel a lot of the delay has to be put at the door of the Noble Organisation and that delay has added to the cost.

"It has done no service to Brighton and Hove in terms of jobs, tourism and heritage."

Historian and academic Anthony Seldon said Brighton might as well be washed away to sea if the West Pier's fall was followed by the collapse of plans for the King Alfred leisure centre.

Dr Seldon, headteacher at Brighton College, said: "What has happened with the West Pier is a tragic loss and a massive wake-up call for the city.

"If other big projects like the Gehry towers are allowed to be lost, I'm going to leave.

"We either get fully behind the world's greatest architect or muck things up again thanks to a failure of leadership and imagination, which is what condemned the West Pier."

Simon Fanshawe, chairman of the city's economic partnership, said: "I'm sad because if we had been able to reconstruct the pier it would have been a wonderful attraction for Brighton.

"We shouldn't obsess any longer on what we can't do and should instead focus on moving onward and upward."

Eubank has long harboured a dream of being involved in restoring the pier, at one point suggesting he wanted to live on it.

His original offer was not considered seriously at the time by the trust, which had other private sector partners.

But when those partners quit because of delays, Eubank helped set up Eugenius.

Although reputedly a multi-millionaire, the Hove-based boxer never had the money on his own to cope with the sums needed to restore the West Pier.

But he knew a man who did - Nick Leslau, who ran the Prestbury company in London. Mr Leslau agreed to back the consortium, which also included engineering and building experts.

When Prince Charles visited the pier in 1999, Eubank was among those who met him on the deck.

Problems came when Leslau decided to refinance Prestbury, causing problems for the lottery fund and the trust.

The trust brought in St Modwen, which had already made a successful job of renovating Brighton Racecourse.

Eubank and Mr Regan never gave up on the West Pier and expressed a desire to have another shot if St Modwen failed.