What a start to 2003, in this would-be city of culture as at last, the West Pier has succumbed to the forces of nature.

The Grade 1-listed pier is little more than a battered collection of timber and twisted iron. The scavengers were out in force, somewhat reminiscent of the folk who used to appear on the beaches after a shipwreck close to the shore signalled rich pickings, and the starlings appealed to the local authority for their rights as homeless people.

It is the starlings who will find life difficult when all the tumult and shouting dies down. They won't get a handout from the lottery fund to provide them with bijou residences with sea views and all mod cons.

The nightly aerial ballet will no longer entertain the passing crowds but it is also true that no one will miss the revolting mess they leave in their train. I wonder where they will end up once the future of the pier has finally been decided.

Wherever it is, I shall try to avoid it in the interests of purity and cleanliness. Their removal will no doubt cause a number of dry-cleaners to go bankrupt overnight as their bombing raids become just a distant memory.

But what will be the future of the remaining skeleton of this once proud building?

It seems odd that the West Pier Trust seems to feel that the work will go on as planned. Given the state of the wreckage, it would seem that any rebuilding would be creating a new pier, not restoring an existing one. Does that come within the terms of reference for the lottery money I wonder?

Already the arguments have started as to who is responsible for the pier ending up in the sea. It might be a great deal more sensible for all the interested parties to sit down to try to work out an acceptable solution while there is still a pier to preserve instead of spending time and energy finding reasons as to why it was not this one's fault or that one's fault.

No doubt the owners of the Palace Pier, or Brighton Pier, as they wish to be known, are quietly relieved that they may end up with no rival construction. But the city is the loser and as far as I can see there are no winners.

Many of the Third Age will have spent a good few happy hours on both structures over the years and it is probably just as well that the aged timbers can't speak or a few reputations might go by the board as tales of innocent courtship grow with the telling.

The two piers catered for different types of clientele in their heyday and the city could easily accommodate both structures. It must now be seriously in doubt as to whether the West Pier will live again.

Memories of Oh! What A Lovely War and Brighton Rock, at least are safe on film for us to show our grandchildren but they may never get the chance, as we did, to dodge the waves as they splashed up between our sandalled feet through the gaps in the sturdy timbers.

If future generations do not take more care of our architectural treasures, we may find more of them following the West Pier into the sea. St Peter's Church is facing problems, the Royal Pavilion was only rescued by a council which put away inter-party differences and bit a very expensive bullet and one is forced to wonder what next.

I hope, most sincerely, there will be a positive outcome from the current situation but I fear there may not be. There are a few people who can search their conscience and say "I tried" but there are many more who shrugged and turned their backs.

Maybe the starlings will get them, but I doubt it - there is no justice in this world is there?