The Madeira terraces, built on a grand scale during the 1890s, are one of the great glories of Brighton.

Stretching more than half a mile from the Aquarium to Duke’s Mound, they provide a viewing platform unmatched in any other British seaside town.

They demonstrate the Victorian love of cast iron and are decorative as well as being functional.

They are at once monumental in construction and delicate in design.

But even cast iron, that most resilient of metals, cannot withstand the constant pounding from salt-laden winds and little has been done to protect the terraces over the years from decay.

So it is scarcely surprising that huge faults have been found in the structure which will result in dangerous sections being closed for the foreseeable future.

Madeira Drive is used as a finishing point for many major runs such as the London to Brighton bike ride, one of Britain’s biggest participatory events.

Probably the most famous is the Veteran Car Run on the first Sunday in November to commemorate the removal of the walking pace restriction on early motor vehicles.

It is Britain’s most watched outdoor event with more than a million people lining the route from London. Some of the largest crowds are in Brighton where many spectators like to go on the terraces.

Other crowd pullers include the commercial vehicles run early in May which to my mind is more interesting than the old crocks, and rallies for individual makes of cars such as Minis and Volkswagens.

Madeira Drive itself became Britain’s first racetrack for cars in the Edwardian age and helped revive the resort, which was going through a difficult period. The terraces proved ideal for watching daredevil drivers and their spirit survives in the speed trials staged each September.

But the terraces have not looked good for many years.

The plants are shabby and neglected, even though they have included the biggest euonymus japonicus, an ornamental flowering shrub, in Britain.

The cast iron is cracked and flaky while the many stairways needing attention.

The splendid Victorian lift from Marine Parade functions intermittently and with little advertisement. The lavatories on the middle terrace have long gone.

Rats scuttle along the gutters at road level and this area is uninviting at night. Part of the road has become a gigantic car park.

What is to be done about the terraces?

Left to rot, they will never look a romantic ruin, unlike the remains of that other cast iron masterpiece, the West Pier.

Yet there is no way in which the cash-strapped city council can find anything like the many millions of pounds it would cost to replace the ironwork and make them safe again.

When Labour councillor Andy Durr had the bright idea in the 1990s of renovating the seafront between the piers, he knew that private investment would follow public spending on the arches and so it proved.

But there are few arches in Madeira Drive and the current crop of Labour councillors, newly in charge, have as yet found no solution.

I have previously suggested filling in the terraces at their lowest level with commercial enterprises to provide some of the cash but this might not be structurally feasible, environmentally acceptable or financially viable.

A much more radical solution would be to accept that the terraces have come to the end of their lives and demolish them.

The way would then be open for new terraces made of modern materials and designed by one of Britain’s top architects to provide a viewing platform for the present and a striking feature of our era for the future.

Once again there would have to be a large commercial element to pay for such a vast project but the seafront arches between the piers have shown this can be achieved attractively.

I have always admired the Madeira terraces as a handsome example of Victorian design which also has a practical purpose.

It would be great to restore them to their original splendour but clearly that is impossible.

What Brighton really does not need is half a mile of dangerous decay on the seafront.

The West Pier has been derelict for 40 years and, without imaginative answers, the terraces could be closed for at least that long. Madeira Drive must not become the road to ruin.