SWANAGE Pier’s general manager has made a renewed appeal for funds after the historic Grade II-listed structure suffered devastating storm damage earlier this year.

Ben Adeney, who praised the “incredible generosity” of the local community and supporters so far, told the Echo: “Everyone has been amazing but we still need to raise quite a lot of money to reach our target.”

The damage – caused by gale force seas three months ago – al-most caused the pier to collapse and left Swanage Pier Trust with an estimated £50,000 repair bill.

Currently the pier head remains closed to the public, but Ben stressed it was business as usual for the companies operating on the structure.

“It is really important for people to realise that while the pier head is indeed restricted, the busin-esses located on the pier are open,” he said.

Raging seas tore through the Victorian pier in March, sweeping one of the structural piles away. In the immediate aftermath there were serious concerns sections of the walkway were in danger of collapsing.

However, volunteers sprang into action and successfully braced the affected area and averted any further damage.

Ben said: “We are exploring all sorts of different funding avenues and are waiting for responses. We are not just sitting around wait-ing for money to come in, we are doing everything we can. How-ever, we still need people’s help.

“Yes, we are moving towards our target and people have been incredibly generous, but we still have a way to go.”

Staff at the pier are also working towards securing some kind of supervised restricted access to the pier head, to enable boats to dock during the summer season. The structure was voted Pier of the Year in 2012.

To help email generalmanager@swanagepiertrust.com