Engineers are today discussing the future of the stricken West Pier in Brighton.

The West Pier Trust, developers St Modwen and the Heritage Lottery Fund will be presented with a report this afternoon by consulting engineer John Orrell of Hove, on the state of the concert hall after another section of it collapsed into the sea.

Dr Geoff Lockwood, chief executive of the trust said: "On Monday, nature gradually broke more of the supports under the concert hall and swept cladding and debris from the full length of the pier along a hundred yards of the beach."

However, high tide passed yesterday without more serious damage and the tides will become lower during the week.

Trust general manager Rachel Clark, said they would like money released to carry out repairs but were not hopeful as the Lottery Fund usually waits to see if planning permission would be granted.

Meanwhile, St Modwen is looking at whether it is in any way feasible to rescue the roof of the collapsing concert hall.

Dr Lockwood has previously said the concert hall could be saved intact.

However, he said: "As I witnessed the walls of the concert hall being ripped off, I was both sad and angry that we can no longer fulfil that promise.

"Clearly, the partial collapse does not prevent us from implementing the full and authentic restoration of the West Pier.

"It merely means we cannot reuse in full, the original elegant framework of the concert hall.

"It will still be a restoration. When historic buildings on land are burned to the ground they are restored."

He said radio stations as far afield as New Zealand had covered the pier's plight.

He said: "We cannot continue to apply the red tape of bureaucratic due process. Saving the pier requires a flexible mentality in which each of the parties concentrates on the primary objective rather than its own bureaucratic accountabilities."

Campaign group Save Our Seafront, says it and 12 amenity societies support revised plans for the pier revealed in The Argus yesterday.

The trust and St Modwen have plans for a new shoreline development going before city councillors next month.

A new scheme by Birch Restorations, to be submitted shortly, says the pier can be revived with a less extensive shoreline development.

The scheme, designed by architect Nick Lomax, will be presented at a public meeting at the Metropole Hotel on February 5, at 7.30pm.

However, the trust says the pier will not last while attempts are made to put the alternative scheme into place.