'Last chance' to save Colwyn Bay pier from demolition

Restoring the pier is estimated to cost £12m

Campaigners hoping to revive Colwyn Bay's dilapidated pier have been granted one "last chance" to save it from demolition.

Councillors voted to await the decision of a £9.6m Heritage Lottery Fund bid by the trust fighting to save it.

The council wants permission to demolish the pier if that is refused.

Meanwhile, a legal fight between former owner Steve Hunt and the council is continuing, with both sides claiming they own it.

The redevelopment of the pier is expected to cost £12m, and the council could be asked to provide £850,000 towards it.

Sasha Davies, Conwy council's strategic director for the economy, said the regeneration of the seafront was blighted by the eyesore, which had already cost taxpayers more than £668,000.

But Jess Steele, an advisor to the Colwyn Victoria Pier Trust, told the council saving the pier would be far less costly than demolishing it.

"This is definitely the last chance," she said.

If an application for lottery funding was refused the pier would not be saved, she said.

The pier once hosted entertainers such as Morecambe and Wise, Harry Secombe and musician Elvis Costello, and remains the focus of a long-running legal dispute about who owns the structure.