Alternative plan to save pier

Brighton and Hove City Council is due to consider controversial plans for two large shoreline leisure buildings next month.

These have been proposed by commercial developers St Modwen and the Brighton West Pier Trust as a way of making restoration viable.

However, they have been strongly opposed by many neighbours and the campaign group Save Our Seafront as being too big and bulky even though the design has been altered after consultation.

Now, as more large sections of the West Pier's concert hall collapse into the sea, an alternative scheme is about to be lodged with the council in a bid to overcome these problems.

Those behind it include builder John Regan, who was involved in a previous consortium called Eugenius after the first name of the man who built the pier in 1866. It was shelved after the main backer, Prestbury, refinanced itself.

Mr Regan, from Brighton, has been responsible for more than 500 properties and has won conservation awards. He is best known for restoring Western Terrace and Sillwood Hall off Western Road.

The new application is by Birch Restorations, called after the designer's second name. It has been designed by Hove-based architect Nick Lomax, who prepared plans for the Eugenius scheme. He has also submitted plans for a skyscraper at Medina House in Hove.

Mr Lomax is working with London-based architects Bennetts and Furneaux Stewart Design, Birch and Mr Lomax have concentrated the application on the pier itself, which would be raised to beat rising sea levels.

A covered walkway would run along the pier going through the concert hall to the pavilion. The deck would be widened.

From the underground car park in Regency Square, it would be possible to walk to the pier without getting wet on rainy days.

Possible uses would include a spa, conference rooms, restaurants, shops and a centre for showing the Brighton Story, similar to the York, Canterbury and Oxford stories in historic cities.

Mr Lomax has not put in plans for the shoreline development but has indicated it would be tucked on the Lower Esplanade largely below King's Road level, unlike the St Modwen proposals which rise above it. It would also be half the size.

Mr Regan said the same people who backed the Eugenius Consortium were supporting the Birch scheme, including boxer Chris Eubank, Nick Leslau of Prestbury and Corus, formerly British Steel.

He said a number of big names were prepared to help finance the scheme once it was accepted by the West Pier Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Also backing the project is David Courtney, the man behind the Walk of Fame at Brighton Marina and a monorail project along the seafront.

Mr Regan said: "We have done our sums and worked out there is 51,000sqft on the pier which means we need only 38,500sqft on the enabling development."

He said the shoreline scheme could include a casino and attractive leisure uses. There would be no amusements.

He is also hoping to gain support from the Noble Organisation, which owns the Palace Pier, so that it would drop current opposition to the enabling development.

He said: "We have the same team that has been together for the past eight years. Essentially we are local people who have a passion for the pier.

"Chris Eubank is extremely supportive of the project but will not be driving it."

Mr Courtney said: "As a local boy, I have a lot of feeling for the pier and I will help in any way I can."

Mr Regan said it was time for everyone who loved the pier to get together and back a project which could succeed.

Derek Granger, from Save Our Seafront (SOS), said: "This scheme will restore the West Pier to its former glory and be a big new attraction for Brighton."

Sue Paskins, also from SOS, said: "We are delighted with this. We have always wanted to keep the views of the sea. It is a pity we did not have a development like this in the beginning."

It would bring back the pier into use and would also revive the landing stages.

SOS is holding a public meeting about the scheme at the Brighton Metropole on February 5 at 7.30pm.

Brighton West Pier Trust chief executive Geoff Lockwood said: "The partial collapse alerted the world to the state of the West Pier.

"The worldwide media coverage was Brighton's highest profile since the IRA bomb. The global reaction was a concern to save the pier. The international audience would be as amazed as the vast majority of the local community if Brighton and Hove planning committee fiddled over alternatives rather than speedily approving the only proposals capable of saving the West Pier."

Dr Lockwood said it would take years for the alternative to be studied and backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and the city council.

He said: "The West Pier would not survive those three or four years."

The alternative was produced just before planners were to consider the St Modwen scheme and there were no backers for it.

While a spa was superficially attractive it was not market or funding tested unlike the St Modwen scheme.

Dr Lockwood said the St Modwen proposal would provide a heritage pier without funfair outlets.

He said: "Those heritage dimensions will in themselves provide significant income but the commercial activities which sustain them will be varied and flexible.

"We will not be in the amusements or fast food businesses but will key into the demand for upmarket restaurants, family entertainment, night-time youth culture, a variety of music, such as jazz bands, tea dances, brass bands, and conference facilities."

The trust and St Modwen had put forward proposals since 1998 and the design of the enabling development had been out for extensive public consultation with changes made as a result.

He said: "It really is time for a clean decision no matter how hard some minorities are trying to muddy the waters."