31.7.04

English Heritage condemns West Pier: "Time has finally run out for the tumbledown West Pier." Oh yeh?
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1 comment:

Nick said...

According to a Daily Toryraph leader from last week, the loss of the West Pier is a parable for everything that is wrong with Britain! ("disdain for the past, political incompetence, subjection before Brussels, asphyxiating bureaucracy, pointless vandalism")


End of the pier tragedy
(Filed: 31/07/2004)


The loss of Brighton's West Pier is a parable for everything that is wrong with Britain: disdain for the past, political incompetence, subjection before Brussels, asphyxiating bureaucracy, pointless vandalism. Above all, it shows us how the proudest achievements of the private sector can be torn down by government bungling.

The West Pier was built in 1866 through free enterprise. In 1975, citing health and safety, the council closed the construction to the public, and decay set in. In the 1990s, a private consortium came forward with a plan to redevelop the pier with shops and boutiques.

When John Major launched the Heritage Lottery Fund, he specifically cited the pier as an ideal recipient. As usual, Mr Major's promise proved worthless. While heritage bureaucrats fiddled around with flow charts and feasibility studies, the managers of Brighton's existing pier went to Brussels, claiming that the grant would violate EU competition rules. For years, civil servants ran up expenses and lawyers enriched themselves. Then nature intervened.

A storm tore away much of the pier, and suspected arsonists did for the rest. Yesterday, the Heritage Lottery Fund withdrew its offer, and Brighton's Labour council announced that it would clear away the remnants of the deck. The triumph of our state bureaucracy was complete.

7:33 pm

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