Bournemouth Pier stays open by day while around 600 metal grilles are lifted out overnight from 21 September. The first phase should take 11 to 12 weeks.

Work to strip out the floor of Bournemouth Pier’s timber landing stages begins on Monday 21 September. A specialist engineering inspection found the deteriorating landing stages pose an immediate risk to people in the water below, and to the concrete substructure holding the pier up.

The council announced the work on 18 September. The pier stays open during the day. Almost all the work happens overnight.

The first phase involves:

  • removing around 600 metal floor grilles, which form the floor of the lower level of the timber landing stages
  • each grille weighs about half a ton
  • a specialist contractor will dismantle them and lift them onto the pier with a compact crane
  • work runs Monday to Friday, 11pm to 8am
  • it is expected to take 11 to 12 weeks

That takes the first phase to roughly mid-December. Further stages will follow. They involve removing the timber structures themselves and repairing the concrete substructure. The council says it will give updates before each future phase.

How the Bournemouth Pier repair plan shrank, from a 25-year restoration put out to tender in January 2025 to overnight safety works in phases

Why the full restoration is not happening

The council was direct about this. Cllr Richard Herrett, BCP Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for the seafront, said: “We know people want to see it fully restored, and so do we. But recent tender information has shown the full programme would cost far more than the funding currently available.”

The tender he refers to is a public document, and it shows how much the ambition has narrowed.

BCP Council published a contract notice for “Bournemouth Pier Structural Works” on 20 January 2025. Its estimated total value was £8,750,000 excluding VAT. The stated purpose was to extend the life of the pier by at least 25 years. The scope covered concrete repairs, installing an impressed current cathodic protection system to slow corrosion in the reinforcement, and removing the timber landing stages.

Tenders were due by 2pm on 28 February 2025. The contract was meant to run from 1 May 2025 to 31 December 2026, which is now just over three months away.

The notice also shows the council was already worried about affordability a year and a half ago. It put the job out in three competing options, in its own words “due to budget constraints”:

  • Option A: concrete works only, with no timber landing stages removed
  • Option B: concrete works, plus removal of the Northern and Small Boat timber landing stages only
  • Option C: concrete works, plus removal of all the timber landing stages

The notice names Option C as the council’s preferred option “if affordable”, then Option B, then Option A. Bidders could bid for any or all three. The fallback ladder was written into the procurement from the start.

An earlier notice, published on 22 March 2024, had tested the market before that. It recorded that “a grant has been awarded to undertake the works”.

What is starting on Monday is narrower than any of the three options. It is the floor of the landing stages, not the structures, and not the concrete repairs.

Herrett said the “immediate priority is the most urgent safety works”, and that this was “primarily for the safety of those in the water close to or directly below the Pier”. He added: “This is not the end of the conversation about Bournemouth Pier’s future, but it is the responsible first step with the funding available.”

What we could not confirm

Several reports have put figures on money moved out of the pier budget towards cliff stabilisation elsewhere in the district. Those figures differ from one another, and we could not find them in a council decision record, a cabinet paper or the council’s own statement today. We are not repeating them until we can see the document. The council’s statement carries no financial figures at all.

What it means for you

  • The pier is open. It stays open to the public during the day throughout the first phase.
  • Expect noise overnight near Pier Approach. The work runs 11pm to 8am on weekdays, with a crane lifting half-ton grilles onto the pier deck.
  • The lower landing stages are the part being removed, not the main deck, the buildings or the zip wire.
  • If you use the water near the pier, the inspection found the deteriorating landing stages are an immediate risk to people below. That is the reason this phase jumped the queue.
  • Do not expect the full restoration soon. The council has not published a date, a cost or a contractor for the concrete repairs or the cathodic protection system.

The works run through the autumn half term and into the run-up to Christmas. Planning a trip? Our guide to things to do in Bournemouth covers what else is open nearby. Bournemouth roadworks and travel has the current closures around the town centre and seafront.

Sources