The West Pier Trust, which owns the beleaguered Victorian pier on Brighton’s waterfront, has ditched its hopes of restoring the jetty and now plans to secure private funds to build an entirely new pier.

In a letter to its members, the trust said the restoration was now highly improbable and that it must not enter 2005 with “unrealistic claims”.

Geoff Lockwood, the trust’s chief executive, said: “The history of the last 10 years makes depressing reading and the pier is now a ruin – thanks to vacillations of public bodies, the opposition of the owners of the Palace Pier and the dramatic damage caused by professional arsonists.

“Our new plans will be private-sector financed and led. Some heritage monies will be sought for specific elements and the amount of commercial square footage needed to finance and sustain the new pier will be significantly greater than in the 1995-2004 proposals.”

The revised plans include a heritage centre examining the history of the pier, the reconstruction of the original concert hall, retention of the east and west entrance buildings and re-using the original, 1866 kiosks, which the trust has in storage.

The Grade I-listed pier was closed in 1975 and was badly damaged by storms and two fires in 2003.

Brighton attracts around eight million visitors a year, with its other pier, the Palace Pier, being among the top five leisure attractions in the UK with more than five million visits annually.