WORK on restoring Brighton's West Pier is unlikely to start before next spring.

And West Pier Trust chief executive Geoff Lockwood says it could even be delayed until the autumn.

Trust officials had hoped to have made a start by now following the £10.5 million Lottery grant announcement in March.

But Dr Lockwood is confident the £30 million scheme will still go ahead. And he said that plans for a shore-side building essential to make the project viable are likely to be made public next month.

Dr Lockwood said the Heritage Lottery Fund changed the terms for the grant immediately after sanctioning it.

The original idea was that the fund would make a contract with the trust, which would then make its own arrangements with its private sector partner, a London-based property firm.

But the fund then decided to have a contract with both to ensure they were all committed.

The fund also changed its mind about how to release the money. Originally the trust thought the first phase of restoring ironwork and the pier deck could go ahead while progress on the rest of the scheme was being negotiated.

But the fund then decided the whole restoration had to be agreed first.

Dr Lockwood said: "It was not unreasonable since both Lottery and private sector funding for the first phase could be wasted if the succeeding phases do not proceed.

"But it was an unexpected shift from phase-by-phase development to big bang."

Dr Lockwood said an enormous amount of technical, legal and financial work was involved in that shift.

The trust unsuccessfully asked the fund to release up to £1 million for emergency work this year to maintain momentum.

He said he could understand people getting anxious about the apparent lack of progress and said they deserved an explanation about the reasons.

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