Column: It is crucial that terrace is saved from demolition

No other resort or city in the country can compete with this half-mile long stretch of magnificent cast iron Victorian seafront arches.

They also act as a large spectator area for the many events that finish or are staged in Madeira Drive, ranging from the Veteran Car Run to charity events.

Although they are listed as being of architectural or historic interest, the terraces are in a dangerous state and closed to the public.

Crowdfunding has raised an astonishing sum, £400,000, towards renovating the terraces. It has shown the level of support in the city for them.

But restoration is estimated to cost the daunting figure of £24 million at a time when there is a squeeze on public spending.

Now developer Roger Wade, who lives in Brighton, has put in plans for a £100 million development including shops, offices and a hotel along with the restoration.

Through his company Boxpark, Mr Wade is proposing a scheme covering 0.5 million square feet, a huge development. It will mean moving the arches forward to fit all the proposals on to the site.

There has been predictable opposition to the plans which people who love the arches say will ruin their appearance. Certainly the artist’s impression shows the arches very much dwarfed and diminished by the new build.

The city council made a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund in March for money to restore the arches but it was unsuccessful. Undaunted, it is having another go.

I don’t think Mr Wade’s plans preserve enough of the arches for his planning application to be approved but he may be on the right lines. If the council’s bid for Heritage Lottery funding fails for a second time, the gap between what has been raised locally and the full restoration scheme will be too great.

The choice will then be between demolition, leaving the arches closed and derelict, or having some sort of enabling development to pay for the work. I fancy it will be possible to devise a development with private enterprise help that would be much more attractive than Mr Wade’s scheme.

Revitalising the arches would also bring fresh life to Madeira Drive which has been down in the dumps for several decades. There are some attractions especially at the eastern end such as the Sea Life Centre, shops, amusements and cafes. Further east there is Yellowave, the beach sports centre, Concorde 2 and a children’s playground. A new swimming centre could also bring in visitors while Volk’s Railway could be lengthened to serve both the Palace Pier and the marina.

In the 1990s, council investment to improve the Lower Esplanade helped bring in millions of pounds from private enterprise to revitalise the area between the piers. A similar combination of private and public cash could do much the same for Madeira Drive.

There are questions still to be answered about how the city council and its predecessors allowed the terraces to decline into a dangerous condition.

It must have been obvious for many years that not enough money was being spent on maintenance and once this was belatedly discovered, there was a long gap before councillors and the public were informed.

Cast iron is a robust metal well suited to a seafront environment which is why it was so much favoured for building piers. Preventative work years ago would have stopped the terraces from descending into their present parlous plight. Much the same happened when the seafront bandstand was allowed to decline into a disastrous state.

Eventually it cost the huge sum of £1 million to restore when rigorous maintenance could have achieved the same result for far less cash. Then there was the sad story of the West Pier which was ruined by the procrastination of public enterprise to a point when it easily fell victim to flames and storms.

This was by common consent the most beautiful pier in Britain and its ghostly remains serve as a sorry reminder of what official vacillation and timidity can do. It all begs the question of what is being done now to protect important but neglected buildings in Brighton and Hove.

A few are on the national At Risk register. The demolition of the Astoria in Gloucester Place and the continued closure of the Hippodrome in Middle Street shows what can happen.

There’s no doubt about civic enthusiasm to save the Madeira Terrace but it may be too late. The council needs to make sure it is not storing up similar disasters for the future.