Emergency funding granted for Birnbeck Pier emergency funding
Over £3.5m has been awarded
Last updated 22nd Oct 2022
Emergency funding has been announced to restore a walkway along Weston-Super-Mare’s derelict Birnbeck Pier.
The National Heritage Memorial fund announced £3.55 million of funding which will support the stabilisation of the legs of the pier and the creation of a new walkway to bring back access to the island at the end of the pier.
Announcing the funding on Thursday, Simon Thurley, chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund called the pier: “One of the most imperilled sites in England but also, I am sure you will agree, one of the most beautiful.”
Arts Minister Stuart Andrew said: “Sometimes people question why we do things about our heritage but these are important landmarks and they are important to local communities.”
He added: “It is important, when structures like these could be in danger of total collapse, that we do put that money in to preserve it. So I am very proud of the allocation that has been made today and I hope that this will be the start of a brilliant future for the pier.”
The Victorian pier mostly closed in 1994 and it has been completely derelict since the lifeboat station closed in the early 2010s.
Rachel Lewis, heritage and design manager for North Somerset council, said this funding was not yet enough to restore the existing walkway fully. She said: “It will be a new, narrower one to start with that will be functional until we get some money to finish it off.”
North Somerset council also have a bid in to the National Heritage Lottery Fund for funding to restore the buildings on the island and on the mainland.
Once access to the island is restoried, the RNLI plan to build a new lifeboat station on the island, which will allow them to launch at all tides, something that is not possible at the lowest tides from their current temporary base.
Adiran Carey, head of the South West region RNLI, said of the funding: “It’s a really positive, great first step but we know there’s an awfully long way to go yet. Because we still have the acquisition of the pier and the island to go and we have to get our designs worked up and approved.”
The pier is currently in private ownership but North Somerset council are going through the process of obtaining a compulsory purchase order for the pier.
Simon Talbot-Ponsonby of the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust said: “We all know that we have been having difficulty in encouraging the owner to give up the pier but it is inevitable that before too long the ownership will pass to North Somerset.”
Birnbeck pier was opened in 1867 and is the only pier in the country to lead to an island.