The future of a historic pier in Hastings, East Sussex, remains uncertain after the owners of the Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, pulled out of a deal to acquire the attraction.

Kerry and Michelle Michael of Grand Pier Limited, which is currently carrying out a major redevelopment of Weston-super-Mare's Grand Pier, decided not to go ahead with the purchase due to the cost of restoring Hastings Pier. According to Grand Pier Limited's engineers, it would cost more than £24m to repair the pier in Hastings and a similar amount to provide the attraction with new visitor facilities.

Kerry Michael said: "It would appear that the pier is deteriorating much faster than we thought and in the opinion of our structural engineers, is in danger of imminent collapse. "The restoration of the pier is a vast undertaking and we would have to be definite about its viability before we did anything, and I'm afraid that doesn't look likely."

Kevin Boorman of Hastings Borough Council added: "It confirms what our own engineers have been saying for some time now. According to these figures, we're talking about a figure of almost £50m being required to turn the pier into a viable attraction, which is a huge sum of money. "And it does mean that some serious questions will need to be asked over the future of the structure which, of course, is not owned by the council but by Panamanian-registered Ravenclaw, who have not returned our calls for some time."