Royal Albion Hotel owners will pay for demolition

Part of the Royal Albion hotel is Grade II*-listed by English Heritage

The owners of a 200-year-old hotel destroyed by a fire will be charged for demolition and safety work on the site.

The blaze at the Regency-style Royal Albion hotel on Brighton seafront broke out in July.

Brighton and Hove City Council took control of the site to carry out at least £500,000 worth of safety and demolition work.

A representative for the hotel owners acknowledged the charge for the costs incurred in a meeting with local authorities.

The details were set out in a report about an emergency meeting held on 17 July.

Council officials met senior fire officers, a structural engineer and representatives of Britannia Hotels, Sussex Police and Dorton Demolition following the fire.

In the meeting it was explained to the hotel representative that the city council would undertake demolition work to make the building safe and all costs incurred would be charged to the hotel owners.

The report said that the council aimed to recover all the costs from Britannia Hotels and/or its insurer

The report said when demolition was commissioned it was "unclear what the level of cost would be" and that the "urgency of the situation" required work to start. Once it had, it was clear the cost would exceed £500,000.

Work carried out so far is the minimum to keep the area safe and protect the remaining listed building.

The site will be handed back to Britannia Hotels once unsafe parts of the building are demolished and the remaining sections propped and hoardings put in place.

At this point, the exclusion zone will be reduced to a minimum.