The crumbling Victorian pier set to be finally restored

• The restoration of the historic Grade II* listed Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare has been saved by new funding.
• The National Lottery Heritage Fund provided an additional £5.5m, bringing its total contribution to £15m, after the project faced a major funding gap.
• The funding gap emerged when the RNLI withdrew from the project, which councillors stated had put the pier's restoration in "jeopardy".
• Birnbeck Pier, unique for linking the mainland to an island, has been on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register since 1998, having closed to the public in 1994.
• Work on restoring the pier's bridge structure is scheduled to begin by the end of 2025 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

IN FULL

Historic pier to be restored after surprise multi-million pound funding