Replacement steel for the next two bays of Queen’s Pier is expected to be shipped to Ramsey next week.

The steel girders were delivered to Glasson Dock in Lancashire at lunchtime on Friday.

Volunteers with the Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust signed a five-year lease with the government in July 2017 to restore the first three bays of the pier.

This was completed within four years, with the project quickly becoming a real community effort.

The trust then focused on phase two of the ambitious restoration, which goes up to bay eight, having signed an extension to the lease in 2021.

Bays four and five were completed in time for an event to mark the King’s Coronation and bay six was finished last autumn.

If all goes to plan, bays seven and eight will be completed by the end of summer.

Volunteers are having to contend with the spiralling costs of materials. Overall restoration was originally set to cost £4.5m, with each of the 60 bays estimated to cost £75,000 but this was before the recent price rises.

The cost of the steel has increased a lot, rising from the original £35,000 a bay to £56,000. The pier had its first opening of the season on Sunday.

Visitors can inspect the pier tram which the volunteers are hoping will this summer trundle along the landmark for the first time in 35 years.

Apart from a short test run, the little engine and its trailer have not operated on the pier since it closed for safety reasons in 1990.

The replacement steelwork for the phase 2 bays has been fabricated in Glasgow.

Replacement steelwork for the first few bays was craned in but that for the next three bays was installed using a telehandler operating from the beach.

The steel girders for bays seven and eight will also be lifted in from the beach.