The retired engineer leading the drive to restore Queen’s Pier, Ramsey, says his team of volunteers are ’on the starting blocks’ ready to begin work.

However, the Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust has to wait for the government to agree a licence first.

But Helen Goldie, head of estates management at the Department of Infrastructure, said this was progressing well and she is confident an agreement will be signed ’in the near future’.

A survey of the pier’s 60 bays was carried out between September and November last year and has been presented to the DoI.

It outlines exactly what condition the bays are in and how much it will cost to repair them.

’I think the pier is better than we thought,’ said Tom Durrant, who is heading up the restoration campaign.

Total cost of the work is estimated at £1.5m for materials alone. But the trust wants to start with the first bay at the landward end which they estimate will cost £78,000 to repair.

So far, however, the trust has raised £29,000 but Tom believes that once the licence is signed, fundraising can begin in earnest.

He said: ’We are all on the starting blocks. We are hoping to have the licence by the end of March. We understand exactly how we are going to do the work. We are just waiting for the word.

’We’ve got to be able to show people we are capable - and we are capable - of restoring the pier so people can walk on it.’

Tom said the steel girders are in a poor condition in a lot of places, particularly on the left hand side of the pier as you look out to sea, because of the prevailing winds.

But the timber decking is better than expected, although missing in places.

Ms Goldie told the Examiner: ’We are still working together to get an agreement in place to take this forward.

’It’s a work in progress. We are not yet at the point of an agreement being signed. We are looking to get it done in the near future.’

She said the Attorney General’s chambers were involved in drafting the agreement and Manx Utilities was involved in arranging for services to be connected.

’It’s not just us working with the trust. We are all working together in a big partnership. We need to make sure all the ducks are in a row. It’s all positive.’

Ms Goldie said the DoI had already made sure approvals will be in place for any road closures that are needed. There was no firm date yet for when the utilities will be connected.