They say trouble always comes in threes and that could not be more true of the battered and beleaguered West Pier in Brighton.

Part of the concert hall in the middle slid into the sea during bad weather after Christmas and more disappeared during an exceptionally high tide in January.

Now the handsome theatre at the end of the pier has been destroyed in one of the biggest fires Brighton has seen in years, None of this would have happened if proposals to restore the Grade I listed pier had not taken so long.

After all, the historic structure managed to survive against all the odds throughout 30 years without maintenance, a time that included the 1987 hurricane. In the end, it could wait no longer and part of it buckled under the strain at the end of last year.

The blaze yesterday must have been caused by an arsonist who approached the hulk by boat. It is inconceivable the theatre, which had no electricity and no access from the shore, could have caught fire in any other way. We will probably never know who was responsible for it but no doubt the arsonist was somewhere standing in the crowd to watch what he had started.

Plenty of people were responsible for the delays. The Heritage Lottery Fund imposed difficult conditions. English Heritage was too fussy. Some objectors were prepared to let it go rather than accept the scale of shoreline development needed to make it viable.

But there is no point in apportioning blame. The question now is whether yesterday's enormous fire makes any difference to the restoration project. The answer is a defiant 'no'.

There will be siren voices saying the pier project should be abandoned now and it should be put out of its misery. But they will mainly be from people who have never wanted the restoration to take place.

The West Pier has always been more appreciated by visitors to the city than by many of those living there.

The revived West Pier will be much more of a rebuild than a renovation now that the principal building on it has been destroyed. But as a result of its deterioration, it was always going to be largely a rebuild anyway.

Most old treasures tend to get renewed gradually. HMS Victory, one of the nation's biggest tourist attractions, has only five per cent of the timbers that Nelson and his crew trod during the Battle of Trafalgar. But it is still an authentic ship and a rebuilt West Pier will also be authentic.

Uppark, the historic house owned by the National Trust north of Chichester, was destroyed by a serious fire and rebuilt so that it is now more popular than ever.

There are authentic records and drawings so the West Pier can be rebuilt to recreate its original majesty. It was the best and most beautiful pier in the realm. Rebuilt and restored, it can be so again to delight a new generation. The West Pier can soon be the star of Brighton and Hove's restored seafront once the rebuild gets under way.

But this time, don't forget the sprinklers.