I WAS saddened to read the comments in your story on the Madeira Terrace (Fears Madeira Terrace Will Become Another West Pier, February 10).

One person quoted states: “The arches would not be in such a dilapidated state today if council leaders over the decades had paid more attention to maintaining the prime assets of Brighton. Shame on all of them, past and present.”

I took over as leader of the council shortly after they were closed, and along with local residents launched a campaign to restore them, with welcome backing from The Argus. Our crowdfunder appeal was at the time the largest in the UK, and I committed over a million pounds of council capital funding to begin the project.

Council leaders couldn't save the West Pier as that was privately owned, but I was determined to stop the terrace suffering the same fate.

There's no doubt that the terrace ironwork, exposed to the sea air for 120 years, lasted far longer than Phillip Cawston Lockwood could have imagined when, as Brighton Council borough surveyor in the 1890s, he oversaw their creation. There's no doubt too that rebuilding them is an enormous challenge.

Like every resident, I'm saddened that work, five years in from that campaign launch, is still to begin. Council leader Phelim Mac Cafferty will appreciate that people see Green Party projects like the Valley Gardens bus lanes, the seafront biodiversity projects, i360 and new cycle route provision pushed through, and wonder why they don't press harder for the Madeira Terrace to be brought back to public use.

We know what an asset the seafront is to the city, for residents and tourists. The new Shelter Hall at West Street is a good example, and Madeira Drive was a home to many events like the Speed Trials, London to Brighton bike ride and Veteran Car Run.

It is the association with vehicle-related events that led some to think the Greens were dragging their feet on restoration. The 50 per cent cuts in Conservative central government funding to councils like ours doesn't help.

I wish I'd had the time in office to make more of a difference to bringing the terraces back into the productive use they were built for. It's time for my successor to take up the cause with more vigour.

Warren Morgan

Leader of the city council 2015-18

Brownleaf Road

Brighton