HIGHCLIFFE zig zag can be restored for as little as £50,000, says a local businessman.

Former travel chain boss Stephen Bath has offered to organise the work himself, promising to make the crumbling path safe for 10 years, and to cover any additional cost himself should it be required.

The zig zag was closed earlier this summer after the wooden supports showed signs of failure, and they have now collapsed, as revealed in Mr Bath’s aerial pictures.

In August, Christchurch council voted not to proceed with its reconstruction after being quoted £1.25 million for the work. The decision sparked uproar among residents and a hostile petition of around 3,000 signatures, and last week the borough agreed to go back to the drawing board.

“Many people think that this footpath could be rebuilt to a perfectly safe standard, to last at least 10 years,” Mr Bath told the Echo.

He said “90 per cent” of the path was “as good as the day it was finished” and described the council’s quoted figure of £140,000 just to close off the zig zag and make the area safe as “la la land”.

Mr Bath’s £50,000 repair proposal would cost less than the up-to-£65,000 the borough has spent on consultants’ fees and repairs over the past few months. The council’s original estimate for the reconstruction work was £580,000.

The zig zag was originally constructed in 2005 for a cost of around £150,000.

“I can direct an engineering company to fix the zig zag for less than council officials spent on getting a company to specify what needed doing,” said Mr Bath.

“We don’t want to rebuild the whole thing we just want it to work again.

“All we want is a ramp, not a palace.”

Last week councillors voted to set up a team to look at further options to repair the zig zag.

Originally, consultee engineering firm AECOM identified two feasible fixes with the cheapest being the £1.25m king post piled wall, with steel rods driven into the cliff face and concrete poured between them.

In response, council chief executive David McIntosh said: “Mr Bath has not submitted any proposal to the council. A task and finish group is being set up to look at the Highcliffe Castle zig zag path. This group will report back on its findings at Full Council in February 2018.”