http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9701611.i360_tower_given_go_ahead/

£14m council loan could restart viewing tower plan

Brighton’s planned tourism magnet, the 175-metre i360 viewing tower, could be back on track thanks to a government grant and a council loan totalling £17m.

The new Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership has just agreed a £3m   loan to the project from its Growing Places Fund.  However having so far raised £18m of the required £35m, the tower’s developers Marks Barfield still need a further £14m.

Now Brighton & Hove City Council is proposing stepping in to kickstart the scheme. The plan would be for the council to act as a bank, borrowing funding from external sources and lending £14m to the developers in return for certain cast-iron guarantees on repayment.

The council’s cabinet on May 10 is expected to agree in principle to look into the option.  If it is judged viable, a final decision would be made in
July.  If agreed, the project could be re-started within two or three months and completed in two years.

Officials believe the risks will be relatively low while benefits could be huge.  A completed tower would be expected to attract up to 800,000 visitors a year, spending upwards of £5m in the city and encouraging up to 18,000 more people to stay overnight.

It would create between 154 and 440 jobs and boost businesses in the area, including nearby Preston Street.

Building the tower would also enable completion of seafront regeneration works, including refurbishing and letting adjacent derelict seafront arches and completing the landscaping to the east and west of the site.

Other financial benefits for taxpayers include the council receiving one per cent of ticket revenues plus interest on the loan, set to be repaid over eleven years. Developers would repay the loan from profits made on the attraction.  Independent economists AECOM have said the i360 is likely to earn five times more money than is needed to repay the loan, making it low-risk for the council.  Even lowest-possible visitor projections enable safe repayment of the loan, they advise.

Cabinet councillor for culture Geoffrey Bowden said:  “At this stage we’re looking into the option rather than promising to pursue it.  This would be a business and regeneration proposal by the council, not an act of charity.

“Under the law we can only propose this because the project is at such an advanced stage and the developers already
have 50 per cent of their funding in place.  We cannot use such funding for every type of project we may wish to see started.

“This project being at a standstill is costing the city at least £5m a year, blocking completion of the seafront regeneration and preventing lots of other spin-off business taking place nearby.

“By making a loan, we end those problems, boost public coffers by renting out nearby seafront arches, collect more in business rates, radically smarten the seafront and create hundreds of jobs.”

Officials say that in the unlikely event of a default on the loan, the council could take over the site, the business or its assets.

A report on the proposed loan goes to cabinet on May 10 and can be seen here on the council website.

Newsletter to Members

It is a while since I have sent a members’ newsletter. I had hoped to do so early in the year but thanks to delays on the Rock Shop work (see below) and the fact that a public announcement could not be made until contracts were signed, meant that I was obliged to delay sending this until now.

Brighton i360

As we’ve been reporting with painful regularity, the period since 2008 has been a very challenging environment in which to raise funds necessary to complete the i360 funding package. However, our partners, Marks Barfield Architects (MBA), continue to work hard to close the gap and demonstrate their commitment to the project by helping the Trust financially and funding some major work which has just started on site (see below).  MBA, the Council and the Trust are very focussed on delivering the scheme and are making progress. We are still optimistic that the i360 will become Brighton’s next major new attraction.

Pier Development Interest

You may have read in the local press that a Brighton developer, Mike Holland, expressed interest in rebuilding the pier. It’s well known that the Trust’s priority is to deliver the i360 with its partners as we strongly believe that a new pier could not be viable without the i360. In the long term we hope the site will boast the i360 and a new West Pier. In the meantime we are always pleased to talk to people with solid, funded proposals for the pier and on that basis opened discussions with Mr Holland. We asked Mr Holland to provide basic details of his proposed scheme including statements on design, activities and funding. As a charity with objects and legal responsibilities the Trust could hardly be expected to give Mr Holland carte blanche. In fact it is hard to imagine how any organisation would be prepared to accept a proposal for its site without knowing anything about it. He was not prepared to provide the Trust with this information and instead decided to withdraw his interest. The manner in which this was reported in the media could give the impression that the Trust was not willing to work with Mr Holland. That is not the case at all.
We would have been very keen to do so had really practicable proposals been put to us.

Rock Shop

Local members will have noticed the parlous condition of the Rock Shop which has been closed and hoarded for three years. The Trust’s onsultant engineers, Hemsley Orrell Partnership, recommended that the building should be carefully dismantled and stored. As this work will be part of i360 construction (the Rock Shop will be restored and reinstated in situ, along with a replica of its sister on the west side of the root end) MBA is funding the work. We will also use the opportunity to make improvements to the root end.  The disused 1990s kiosks will be removed,
hording will be erected on the west side to match that on the east and the Heras fencing will be renewed. The aim is to tidy up the site whilst not removing valued views of the remains of the pier.

West Pier Fragments Sales

The sales resumed in December and ran through January and February. There is still a lot of material left to buy although what remains are mostly quite large pieces. Dates for future sales are announced in the news section of our website  www.westpier.co.uk, on Twitter (@WestPierTrust) and Facebook (Official West Pier, Brighton). Proceeds from the sales are designated for heritage and education use.   A local photographer, Julia Claxton, recently took some excellent photographs during a sale, they can be seen at http://photography.juliaclaxton.net/westpierrelics . Meanwhile, the greater part of the cast iron salvaged from the pier in the late 1990s was removed before the sales started to safer storage for use by the Trust in the future. This material is in better condition than the fragments that have been for sale and includes two complete original 1866 kiosks which we hope to restore and reinstate in the future.

West Pier at the Fishing Museum

The western arch at the Fishing Museum has for several years housed a small exhibition of West Pier artefacts. The exhibition has now closed in order for the space to be refurbished and re-launched to explain the broader history of the Brighton seafront. New elements will include material about Brighton Swimming Club and Punch & Judy. We are hoping, in partnership with the Fishing Museum and Fedora Punch & Judy, to build on the success of last May’s Punch & Judy exhibition and expand what we offer to schools. There will be a new education room above the western arch where teaching sessions can take place throughout the year. We have also been working with other small Brighton heritage organisations, led by Brighton Museum, to find ways of working more collaboratively thus reaching more schools and offering more effective and
attractive educational packages.

Dip Your Toe

BWPT is collaborating with a local Arts Council funded group which will be putting on beach hut based events in May throughout Brighton – ‘Dip Your Toe’.  One of the six huts will be sited on the West Pier beach, another by the Fishing Museum. The West Pier hut will house
Vivascope, a camera obscura http://boxoffice.brightonfringe.org/event.aspx?evID=4209These events will be celebrating the maiden voyage of the Lone Twin boat, part of the Cultural Olympiad. www.dipyourtoe.co.uk

Radio 4 – Nature

On 17^thand 19^th January there was an edition of Nature on Radio 4 about the West Pier starlings, you can listen again on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019f9hf/Nature_Series_5_Episode_3_The_Ghost_Roost/

AGM

This year’s AGM will on 15^th November at 6pm in the Hilton Brighton Metropole.

Newsletters

If you are still receiving your newsletter by post and would prefer it emailed to you please let me know by writing to rachel@westpier.co.uk . Emailing saves time and money but to ensure receipt, the two AGM mailings are sent to everyone by post.

The West Pier Trust wishes to announce that an important original part of the pier, the Rock Shop, will be dismantled over the next few weeks. Situated on the root end of the pier, the Rock Shop was closed three years ago when it became structurally unstable. Its condition has continued to deteriorate and so the Trust and its partners, Marks Barfield Architects, designers of the i360, have decided it is time carefully to dismantle it and put it into safe storage. 

Since the restoration of this building is part of the i360 scheme, Marks Barfield are bearing the cost of the work. In due course it will be restored and reinstated, along with a replica of its sister kiosk on the west side of the pier’s root end, as one of the heritage elements of the i360. In fact it will be reopened as a toll booth which was its purpose when the pier opened originally in 1866.

The dismantling work will be carried out by Dorton Group and overseen by the Trust’s consultant engineers, Hemsley Orrell Partnership.

As part of the work, the pier’s root end will also be improved. The two 1990s kiosks which are no longer used will be removed, the hoarding realigned and the Heras fencing replaced. Popular views of the pier will not be obstructed but, we hope, improved.

No firm timetable has been announced for the i360 development but architects and designers of the scheme, Marks Barfield are continuing to seek the final balance of funding.  Once all the financial backing is in place work will start within weeks.

Please call Trust Chief Executive, Rachel Clark for further information 01273 321499 rachel@westpier.co.uk

I am a freelance writer and I’m really interested in speaking to some people who have bought the pieces of the West
Pier to include in an article which is about where the different parts have ended up.  The piece would include a short interview with them and if
possible a photo – depending on their location.  The article is then to feature on the BrightonLite website (but it is also possible
that it will be commissed by another publication).  If it is possible for you to put a notice on your website than that would be fantastic asking if
people would like to share their story of what kind of piece they have bought and it’s new home.

This story I hope will not only be one of public interest but a document of the ever-changing history of the West Pier and as a Brightonian this is a subject I hold dear to my heart.

If you would like to take part in this please contact Rachel at rachel@westpier.co.uk or 01273 321499

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-16815979