Time has finally run out for the tumbledown West Pier.

English Heritage today declared the remains of the Grade-I listed structure beyond repair.

The Government-backed conservation body's plan for a back-to-basics restoration, announced earlier this year, was the pier's last hope.

Its experts have now pulled the plug, saying it would be irresponsible to support an application for public money to fund the scheme.

Talk now is of how best to clear the wreckage away from Brighton seafront and where to put the historic features which have been salvaged.

English Heritage was due to publish a report on its plans for the pier next month. Publication was brought forward after its engineers declared the iron structure unsafe.

It says the collapse of the concert hall in storms last month sealed the pier's fate. It describes the Grand Old Lady as now little more than several tonnes of scrap metal.

However, the Brighton West Pier Trust, which owns the pier, is refusing to accept the experts' verdict.

The trust knew nothing of the body's decision to pull out until contacted by The Argus last night.

Chief executive Dr Geoff Lockwood said he would arrange an emergency summit with Brighton and Hove City Council, insisting the pier still had a future.

But council leader Ken Bodfish said: "I fear we have come to the end of the road.

"This is going to be a terrible loss to the seafront but if English Heritage says there cannot be a credible restoration, they are the absolute experts. We have to respect that view, deeply saddening though it may be.

"It has been a 30-year catalogue of disappointments, disasters and misfortunes to say nothing of missed opportunities.

"But it really does look as if time and tide have done for the pier and I join millions in grieving for her.

"We now need to ensure the remains do not blight the seafront." English Heritage's announcement comes six months after a decision by the Heritage Lottery Fund to refuse a long-promised £14.2 million grant.

Dr Simon Thurley, the body's chief executive, said: "This is a terribly disappointing outcome.

"But common sense has to prevail when historic structures are so badly damaged they cannot realistically be saved. The most important thing now is the marvellous artifacts salvaged from the pier over the years are made accessible.

"This will allow Eugenius Birch's masterpiece to be commemorated properly."

The pier remains one of just two listed piers in Britain and, according to English Heritage, is the most important ever built.

An estimated £20 million would be needed to restore the historic attraction to its original 1866 splendour.

The collapse last month was the last straw after three decades of neglect, two suspicious fires and the steady battering of tides and storms.

Friday July 30, 2004