BUSINESSES, the council and the Government will have to work together if the city's collapsing seafront is to be saved.

That was the rallying call from affected parties in response to the latest crisis affecting Brighton and Hove's Madeira Drive arches.

On Saturday we revealed the owners of JAG Gallery and Studio 284 rehearsal space had been told to move out because the Victorian arches were no longer safe.

It has led to calls for recommendations from Brighton and Hove City Council's own seafront review and The Argus's Seafront 2020 campaign to be brought to life.

Adam Chinery, from the Seafront Traders' Association, urged everyone to pull together to save the iconic arches.

He added that the problem could not be solved in the city alone and that we must look elsewhere for help.

He said: "We need to get whatever help we can get and we need to be approaching Westminster. But we need to do it together. If the council on their own apply to Westminster for help, it will be put in a pile. If the council and 300 businesses approach Westminster then we stand a better chance. We have to work together."

Mr Chinery, along with Conservative councillor Vanessa Brown, criticised the local authority's slow response to the crisis.

They claim key regeneration proposals from the council's seafront review have not been acted upon more than nine months after they were brought forward.

The seafront scrutiny panel recommended in October that an enterprise officer for the seafront was established and a crowd funding bid was set up.

Coun Brown and Mr Chinery said neither proposal had been progressed.

The panel also recommended that an enterprise officer could help traders explore developing a seafront Business Improvement District or Town Centre Management and work more closely with the Coast-to-Capital Local Economic Partnership.

Council officers have defended the take-up of the panel’s findings adding that the proposals are at the heart of their future planning.

Coun Brown, who sat on the council's seafront scrutiny panel, said: “Disappointingly there has not been a lot of progress from what was a very good scrutiny board which did come up with a lot of good ideas.”

Mr Chinery added: “Nothing has happened as far as we’re concerned in regards to the recommendations from the scrutiny panel.

“I don’t really feel they have taken on board any of our suggestions.”

He also called on the council to use seafront business owners' expertise and knowledge in finding a solution.

He said: "By working together we have a much better chance of a positive outcome. You have near enough 300 businesses down here on the seafront who know how things work. The council should make the most of them."

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council Conservative group, told The Argus last night he had been briefed on what is being done by the local authority.

He said: "The matter is being looked at as a priority - as it should be.

"The seafront is too important to just ignore. I have been here all my life and I know just how important the seafront is to the city."

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said that the establishment of a seafront investment strategy to draw up a new investment plan for seafront infrastructure was already underway and due next month.

The spokesman said: “The seafront scrutiny panel’s recommendations will inform everything we do.

“There is probably more being invested in the seafront now than at in any time since it was built in its current form.”