The photograph of the West Pier and the letters from Ella Parsons and K Mackle (June 29) deserve comment.
It should be said that the loss of the pier rests fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the (now defunct) Brighton Borough Council.
When the pier became dangerous in 1974, the council should have served a notice under the Town and Country Planning Act to maintain a Grade 1 listed structure.
Its failure to do so let the West Pier Company relieve itself of its statutory liability and offer it to the West Pier Trust for, I think, £1.
The trust was stupid enough, or maybe naive, to accept that liability with no funds available to carry out the work required. The pier has since deteriorated beyond repair or restoration.
Having known the West Pier for more than 80 years, it is tragic that its demise is directly due to an incompetent planning authority failing to use the statutory powers available.
RJ Sharpe
-Sunnydale Avenue, Brighton
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