The Palace Pier is to start charging tourists a £1 entry fee to help cover the costs of maintaining the 125-year-old structure.
The charge will come into effect on 25 May, and run on weekends in June and throughout June, July and August.
Anyone with a residents card – which people living in a BN postcode can apply for and is free – will not have to pay. Children up to the age of two will also be free.
Click here for more information on how the residents card works.
The pier regularly tops the poll of the UK’s most popular free tourist attractions outside London, with more than 4 million visiting each year, and 4,632,108 visiting in 2022, the last year for which figures are available.
The charge is being introduced on the pier’s 125th anniversary. Brighton Palace Group, the company which runs the pier, says operatin costs have increased by 31%, an additional £2.7 million, taking the overall annual cost to £11.6 million.
CEO Anne Ackord, said: “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 pier is with us for generations to come.”
To apply for a card, those who live in a BN postcode area will need to visit the Brighton Palace Pier website and follow the instructions.
Brighton council giving something for free. Shame there is no resident card on their website.
Nothing to do with the council. Pier is owned by a private company
https://www.brightonpier.co.uk/resident-card-form
The Palace Pier is a private company, and nothing to do with the council, so this is their commercial decision.
The £1 entry fee won’t put off most people, but the risk is they lose the footfall for all the sublet kiosk businesses.
Given the history of decline and fall for most seaside piers, I’m happy to pay the £1 if that guarantees a proper rolling maintenance schedule. In many ways that makes more sense than applying for a free residents pass.
It is ironic that it regained the name Palace Pier but not the building which brought it that name. It was taken away for “restoration” and vanished.
I suspect this is a “feeler” for next year and the year after. If they can get away with charging £1 with no ill effect, it gives them encouragement to make it £2 or even £3 next year or the year after and blame it on rising costs rather than lining pockets.
There is always that risk; the resident’s pass is a nice touch. Makes this something that is only going to affect tourists. Although, there’s a few questions about this. Will a resident pass allow +1s?
As I regular visitor to Brighton, I think I won’t bother.
Yes it will make a difference.
Give it a couple of years it will be closed like most places. I or my family definitely will not be paying a pound to look a dark dirty water and an over priced food, drink and entertainment. Good luck to Brighton So very sad.
To the Pier………. No thanks…… You need to find better ways to increase revenue….
gone off the day’s you visit the seaside for free. it will not be long when they will start to charge to go on the beach. The Big problem today in the UK is it’s all about getting money out of us..
To get the “Residents’ Card” you have to tick a box consenting to marketing emails from the Pier – no option not to do so. I guess it depends whether you think that it is worth £1 not to get emails OR whether you would like something for free with the bother of getting marketing. Take your pick.
Man alive, they make a fortune from kids gambling on the 2p machines, move up to the 10p machines as they get a little older, and it is nothing short of gambling
Is this only to a certain time of the day. I was on the pier last night at about 7pm and there was no one being charged for entry.
So they’re charging you to go on to the pier and spend money ? As a regular visitor last week was the first time we haven’t been for drinks etc on the pier because of fee ,Spending money to go spend money is ridiculous