FINISHING touches are being made to a pier so it can finally reopen a decade after it closed and six years since it was destroyed by fire.

The Grade II listed Hastings Pier is set to be finished on Tuesday.

Hastings-born musician Suggs, lead singer of the band Madness, will fix the last plank of 50 miles of new decking on the Victorian structure in place to mark the occasion.

The Hastings Pier charity said it will re-open no later than the middle of April with a celebration planned for May 21 after a two-and-a-half year renovation project costing more than £14 million.

The neglected pier, which closed in 2006, was engulfed by a blaze in October 2010. Two men, then aged 18 and 19, were arrested on suspicion of arson but the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to bring charges.

Nothing was done by its then owner Ravenclaw to restore the structure, which first opened in 1872, and it was dubbed "the peerless pier".

Hastings Borough Council sought a compulsory purchase order so control of the pier could be handed to a trust.

Most of the money for the renovation has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and thousands of people bought community shares as part of a £200,000 appeal launched in 2013.

There are plans for a farmers' market, outdoor cinema, live music, and a circus on the pier during August.

The pier's reopening comes in a special year for the town as 2016 also marks the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

Eastbourne Pier was devastated by fire in July 2014 when the main roof was completely destroyed, leaving only a metal skeleton.

Now it has a new owner, Sheikh Abid-Gulzar, who purchased the site last autumn and is in the process of refurbishing it.

He and Simon Opie, chief executive of the Hastings Pier charity, have now met and want to work together to boost tourism across Sussex.