Rock star Nick Cave wants the ruined West Pier to be turned into an offshore wilderness to create a living memorial to the decaying monument.

He is supporting a proposal by his friend Doug Leitch to turn the pier into a sea-based jungle.

Nick, who lives in Hove with his wife Susie Bick and their four-year-old twins, said: "It would be such an absence if it was to go entirely.

"It's a powerful and poignant monument.

"I've heard people bemoan what's happening to it but I've rarely heard anyone with a constructive idea except to use it as an excuse to open up more development on the seafront. I really don't agree with that."

Mr Leitch wants to see the collapsed front end of the pier removed and earth piled up on to the far end.

Hardy plants could then be grown to entwine with the steel skeleton.

Nick, who sang with the Bad Seeds, said: "I don't want to see it restored."

He fears any restoration would pave the way for developers.

He said: "I watched my home town of Melbourne, which was designed on the Brighton model, destroyed in a few years by developers.

"The idea to let plants grow is inspired. It's a gamble but an exciting one to see what would happen.

"Doug has put his idea into the public forum and it's a really good one.

"There's something egalitarian about it. It's something the community could watch evolve.

"It would be in absolute keeping with Brighton in so far as Brighton has a history of eccentricity in its buildings."

He said he would consider performing at a concert to raise money for the pier and added: "If I could do a concert and it would save the West Pier, then I'd do it."

Mr Leitch, 57, of Albany Gardens, said he was inspired by ruined temples in Indian jungles where vines and creepers had grown through.

He said: "I've lived here all my life, looking at what has been happening to the West Pier all that time.

"I often come along the seafront and enjoy it. It seemed to me like a ruin in India but it didn't have any of the plants growing through it. I would like to see the pier wreathed in green foliage.

"There are plants that grow near the sea and some that bed in sand. I don't know what effect the salt would have but I don't think it's beyond the wit of man to stick some soil up there and see what grows.

"It wouldn't be small flowers, like geraniums and pansies. It would have to be bigger things.

"It would be a wilderness rather than a neat garden. Nick has this thing about wisteria but I don't know if it would grow."

Mr Leitch does not want to see the pier dismantled altogether.

He said: "The pier is a centre to our lives. The first girl I kissed was under the pier. My brother was in the film Oh What A Lovely War! which was filmed on the pier.

Aubrey Beardsley's parents met on the pier. People like Oscar Wilde would have walked on it.

"If they have to demolish it anyway, this would be a way of saving it for another 50 years.

"It would be something nice for everyone to look at."

Mr Leitch's idea is one of several that have come to the fore since storms and arsonists destroyed the pier.

Dr Geoff Lockwood, of the West Pier Trust, said: "The more ideas come forward, the better but we are still hoping to restore the pier. We're still fighting and campaigning."

If all else fails, the trust's preferred idea is to have a museum on the land, which would house preserved pieces of the pier and contain a holographic version of the historic structure and a laser show.

Dr Lockwood said: "We want to keep hope alive for future generations so if we can't restore it, others may in years to come."