So it looks like the West Pier (the remains, I mean) will be demolished. The Heritage Lottery Fund withdrew their £14m funds when the West Pier Trust asked for another £5m. After fires and weather damage, they couldn’t justify spending the money.
Who is going to pay for the demolition? I guess that I am, along with all the other council tax payers in the area. I was just trying to figure out what an estimated £2m demolition fee would cost me. It’s not easy to work out…
Brighton receives around £67m+ in council tax revenue (PDF report), from a population of 248,000. Guessing at four people per property, that makes 62,000 homes and an average council tax bill of £1,092. Seems a little high, but let’s run with it.
That means a demolition would add £32 to the average council tax bill. Or… how about considering the restoration as an investment? £19m contribution to a rebuild as a tax would add about £102 for three years (I’m assuming it’s going to take a while to rebuild the thing). Doesn’t sound so bad, but I’d need to see the guesstimates for the return on that investment to make sure the tax bill goes down in subsequent years.
I know all these calculations are naive, but it’d be interesting to see them run by someone who understood the politics, processes and accountancy.