David Biesterfield of the Noble Organisation is wrong to suggest Brighton cannot sustain two piers; Blackpool has three.

The West Pier does not pose a serious commercial threat to the Palace Pier.

In renaming this pier the Brighton Pier, could it be the Noble Organisation wished to deny that another pier existed at all?

Brighton needs the West Pier to provide facilities the other one does not and, with the increased numbers of visitors to the city, both can prosper.

To challenge the commercial element of the project is to challenge the only way in which the restoration can succeed.

This issue should be that the commercial floorspace is sympathetic to the overall scheme and not detract from the views of the pier. The concert hall must be re-built.

Would souvenir hunters' time not be better spent saving debris for the pier instead of for themselves?

Any material stored at Stanmer Park will need to be kept very secure if we are to avoid a repetition of the mysterious disappearance of the dismantled Palace Pier theatre.

Now that the tragedy of the last few days has brought the West Pier into the national gaze, it is time to stop talking about what should have been done and give support to the West Pier Trust to actually restore and rebuild this most precious of piers.

It must now be made an urgent priority, free of re-tape. The Noble Organisation should be called upon to drop its appeal against the ruling over its legal challenge and play an honourable part in saving the seafront for everyone.

-Andrew Cramer-Webb, Sussex Square, Brighton