THE WEST PIER
The Planning Applications Sub-Committee decide, at its meeting on 26 February that it was minded to grant planning approval to the enabling development on the foreshore on either side of the West Pier, subject to a great number of conditions and to the conclusion of a Section 106 agreement between the applicants and the council.

The Society took the lead, with the support of fifteen local amenity societies, in placing a prominent half-page advertisement in The Argus a few days before the planning committee meeting in which it was suggested that refusal was a suitable decision in view of a number of queries about the development which were still outstanding: not least for the possibility of making further improvements to the design of the overlarge new buildings which were being proposed. Unfortunately, this view was not supported by English Heritage which had written a letter to the council only a few days before the meeting which supported the proposed 'enabling development'.

For the record the committee vote was NINE in favour, TWO against and ONE abstention. The committee chairman who took part in the meeting but did not chair it because he is still recovering from a stroke last year, is on record as recommending a call-in for this decision to be made by the Secretary of State.

The Society has also been concerned that the West Pier Trust and its development partner, St Modwen, had made very little progress with the assessment of and detailed proposals for the restoration, repair and rebuilding of all the many component parts of the pier itself, indeed it had not yet appointed conservation architects for the extensive, and in our view critical, work required.

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS HERE
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High winds and seas throughout June 23 2004 caused further collapse.

August 2004
It is reported that English Heritage has now withdrawn support for the reconstruction of the pier.