The other talking point this winter is the ongoing saga of Colwyn Bay Pier. A public meeting was held in the Town Hall in Rhiw Road. Four hundred people attended and most showed support for preserving the pier. A lone voice (yours truly) suggested a structural engineers report should be commissioned before further action. This was greeted with a huge round of .... silence   ... and was that a tumble weed that blew by.

A month later on and, while on the beach today, I was talking to one of the structural engineers commissioned by Conwy Council to survey the pier!

Although not official the conclusion they seemed to have reached so far is that the cast iron stanchions should be fine, but the steel lattice work between the cast iron and the upper decking is badly corroded and needs further tests to check if there is enough cross section of steel remaining. (If this steel fails the test it would be similar to your dentist saying your teeth are fine but your gums have to come out.)

In the last few years many of the X shaped tie bars have snapped due to severe corrosion and indeed several of the horizontal cross members have collapsed. These are made of railway tracks and it seems that it is the corrosion in the steel brackets that fix them to the cast iron stanchions that has caused this particular problem.

There is another public meeting concerning the pier in St Paul's Church Hall on Fri 26th March.

I am not sure what the council will do when they receive the report because regardless of whether the pier is structurally sound or not they will definitely be made aware that the pier is an unsafe structure and is a danger to the public ( as it has been for many years).

Directions:
From Chester or Holyhead take the A55 Expressway to Junction 22 at Old Colwyn. Take the slip road and follow the signs to the Promenade. Free Parking is available on the Promenade.

Facilities: Toilets, Seaside Kiosks and Restaurants.(Rhos on Sea end). Harbour, Pier, (dilapidated)..