The Heritage Lottery Fund has refused to back down on its decision not to fund a restoration of the West Pier in Brighton.

Hopes of saving the landmark's battered remains now rest with English Heritage, which has offered to return the pier to its 1866 shape rather than the final version which emerged in the Twenties.

In January the lottery fund refused to make a grant towards the cost of restoring the pier despite having backed the project in principle for the previous six years.

It went back on its promise to grant up to £14.2 million after turning down a request for an additional £5.4 million.

The Brighton West Pier Trust, which planned the restoration in conjunction with developer St Modwen, called for a review in the hope of turning the decision around.

However, Stephen Johnson, the lottery fund's director of operations, said yesterday: "The decision taken in January was a completely final one."

The fund's board was worried about the scheme's costs and the lack of funding from any other source that could take account of any future increases.

Mr Johnson said: "After a number of setbacks, changes in plan and challenges, the trust has put before us a scheme that was the best it and its partners could produce.

"It asked us for a firm decision on the only scheme it had available and we have given one."

Trust chief executive Geoff Lockwood said he was sad the lottery fund had not acknowledged it contributed significantly towards the change of circumstances, which it then cited as a reason for its decision.

He said: "The actions of lottery fund officers and decisions of the board since 1995 have frustrated and delayed the restoration of the pier through years when the project was feasible and unopposed."

Dr Lockwood said the initiative was now in the hands of English Heritage.

He hoped that if viable plans emerged, the lottery fund would not put them at the back of the queue as if it had not been involved with the pier before.

English Heritage stepped in to save the pier just two days after the fund dropped its pledge.

Dr Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, said the pier was more than just a tourist attraction. He called it "an enduring symbol of Brighton and an intrinsic part of the nation's mental image of its seafront".

Thursday March 04, 2004