A defective bannister through which a young man fell and died last September has still not been repaired.

Charles Greenough, a 21-year-old Australian, was leaving a party at a Grade I-listed flat in Brunswick Square, Hove, when the accident happened.

The barman fell 16ft into a basement and died in hospital a week later from swelling of the brain and bronchial pneumonia.

Despite Brighton and Hove City Council issuing an improvement notice on the building's owners, who claimed that temporary work had made it safe, it has still not been repaired. At the inquest into Mr Greenough's death, Brighton and Hove Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley branded the bannister "dangerous and not fit for purpose" and criticised the poor renovation work carried out in 1991.

An independent expert commissioned by the coroner to assess its safety said it was "dangerous" and questions were raised about the conflict of interest when renovation work was carried out on listed buildings.

Speaking at the inquest, Sean Duchossoy, a senior environmental health officer from the council, said temporary works had been carried out to make the stairway safe.

But, as our picture shows, the broken section through which Mr Greenough fell has been patched over and the rest of the bannister is untouched.

Matthew Jackson, a friend of Mr Greenough who was one of the first on the scene after the accident and who went with him to hospital, described the repairs to the bannister as "rubbish".

Architectural assistant Mr Jackson said because the rest of the bannister was still not repaired it was as dangerous as before.

He said: "I can't understand why nothing has been done when a death has been caused by this bannister."

Mr Jackson said that he and Charles's mother Deborah Greenough would soon start a campaign to try to raise awareness of the potential dangers of listed buildings and to ensure a similar accident didn't happen again.

Mrs Greenough, who paid a moving tribute to her "beautiful"

son, said she could not make sense of the fact that the bannister which led to his death had still not been repaired.

She said: "Charles was the most beautiful person. He was so full of life.

"This has destroyed the life of my husband and I and our two sons.

The thought of never seeing him again is almost too much to bear.

"I think that it's unacceptable that preservation is considered a more important issue than safety.

"Nothing has been done to make it safe. They've put up a barrier around the area where Charles fell but the rest of the bannister is still in the same state as it was when it was deemed unsafe. I hope that something good can come from this.

"We have lost our beautiful son who we loved so much but it appears to me that nothing proactive has been done to make the building safe and that the way it looks is more important than someone's life."

A spokeswoman for the council said it had served an improvement notice on the property shortly before the inquest last month, giving the landlord a maximum of six months to meet the specified safety requirements.

She said: "It's a tragic case but the building regulations only apply to new work and councils have no powers to make property owners undertake work to existing guarding around stairs.

"However, the council will respond to any requests from landlords and property owners to provide advice and guidance on guarding around stairwells in general."