Brighton and Hove City Council leader Jason Kitcat on the Arches and i360 launch
After several years of hard work and a multimillion pound investment, last week saw the official opening of the new seafront arches near the West Pier. Some of our incredible seafront Victorian structures are up to 200 years old and over decades, have fallen into disrepair. This not only threatened the structure of the seafront road above, but was a waste of prime space on our beach.
Unfortunately these marvellous Victorian structures had reached the end of their lives. So two years ago we began work on not just patching up, but fully rebuilding these arches. Now we have a stable road, a new promenade, and new public toilets.
At beach level we’ve restored 26 former fishermen’s rests now home to 10 local businesses, including Finn Hopson’s new gallery Brighton Photography. He said “Its a huge privilege being part of such an exciting development on the beach. The council have done an amazing job of restoring the exterior while giving us a fantastic, practical space inside from where we can run our businesses. With the i360 finally underway it feels like this part of the beach is going to become another one of the vibrant, creative places that Brighton does so well.”
We’re rebuilding other sections of the seafront too, and while there will be some short-term disruption on the prom, this work will ensure our seafront remains standing for many more years to come.
Our work to regenerate our seafront doesn’t stop there; we are also supporting plans for a government loan to bring the i360 tower to regenerate the area. This project, by the team behind the London Eye, has strong support from local resident and business groups, the Local Enterprise Partnership and many others including nearby hotels and venues. It’s no secret that councils are seeing their budgets shrinking – and the new income we will receive from the i360 deal is a vital source of funding to offset government cuts.
Our tourist visitor numbers continue to grow, but we cannot be complacent. It’s only through continually reinventing our city and its attractions that we’ll continue to thrive as a world-class city.
