A MAJOR change to a popular tourist attraction is set to happen just weeks before summer as visitors will now have to pay a fee.
The attraction has reached 125 years old and needs more financial support for repairs in its elderly age.
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As tourists descend onto the famous site over the summer they will now find they have to pay a small fee to use one of Britain’s most beloved seaside icons.
Brighton Palace Pier has announced a £1 admission fee if visitors want to enter the famous pier and walk out onto the water.
The fee will come into force on May 25 and won’t apply to locals who have a local residents card or children aged under two.
It will be in place during peak trading periods in the summer – covering weekends in June and the full months of July and August.
In the last five years costs of maintaining, repairing, and operating the pier have increased 31 per cent, or £2.7million, to £11.6million a year.
The Brighton Pier Group said the admission fee will be crucial in preserving the pier for future generations.
CEO Anne Ackord told The Argus: “We see ourselves as the custodians of the Pier. Many of our team, including myself live and work in Brighton and we understand first-hand the importance of the pier within our city.
“The Pier is a substantial structure and in recent years, the costs associated with maintaining and operating it to the same high levels of upkeep, strength and structural integrity, have increased significantly.
“We have, to date, been able to offset and absorb these costs but we have now reached the point where, in our view, it is sensible to implement a small admission charge for visitors to the Pier from outside the local area.
“The admission fee will be an important contributor to ensuring that our iconic Pier is with us for generations to come.”
Ackord said the pier had never received any form of financial grants.
She told BBC Radio Sussex: “I’ve been associated with the pier for 20 years, and in that time, absolutely nothing.
“The pier is a substantial structure and in recent years, the costs associated with maintaining and operating it to the same high levels of upkeep, strength and structural integrity, have increased significantly.
“We have, to date, been able to offset and absorb these costs, but we have now reached the point where, in our view, it is sensible to implement a small admission charge for visitors to the pier from outside the local area.”
Last summer experts had to warn those wanting to plunge into the water from the pier must be careful.
Teens had been spotted hanging off Brighton Palace Pier “like monkeys” before launching themselves into the choppy waters.
Despite there being signs saying “It is forbidden and dangerous to jump, dive, or swim from the pier”.
Ackord said it’s been happening since it opened in 1899.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
She said: “Generations of youngsters fail to appreciate the considerable danger of doing this.
“The danger is greatest at low tide as the jumpers fail to realise how shallow the water actually is.”
Britain’s ‘most expensive seaside town’ set to hike parking charges AGAIN
By Jacob Jaffa
BRITAIN’S “most expensive seaside town” has hiked its parking charges again.
The popular holiday destination was already more than £10 more expensive than the next priciest coastal spot.
Despite this, Brighton and Hove Council has agreed a new annual budget that saw the cost of a parking space rise by an average of 6% across the two towns.
The changes affected both on-street and off-street public parking throughout one of the UK’s favourite staycation areas.
The new rates were brought in from April 22 this year and can be viewed through the PayByPhone parking app which is used for bays managed by the council.
Any profit generated from the increase will be reinvested back into programmes across infrastructure improvement, road safety and the environment, as is required by law.
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