It was commissioned as HMS Birnbeck and was used for secret weapons development and storage with testing. The "bouncing bomb" was tested at the Brean Down Fort on the opposite side of Weston Bay. After the war, the pier resumed its role as a tourist attraction, but business declined due to competition from the Grand Pier which opened its amusement arcades in 1946. In 1962 the Birnbeck Pier Company sold the pier to P & A Campbell, the steamer operators. After the withdrawal of their ships it was sold to John Critchley, who redeveloped it as a "Victorian pleasure centre" which even had special permission to issue its own currency to visitors. There have since been several proposals to make the pier a commercial success again, including converting it into a hotel, casino, residential use, or the centre of a marina. The most successful steamer company serving the Bristol Channel was P & A Campbell's "White Funnel" fleet. Their operations were suspended during the Second World War, after which the number of passengers decreased with the availability of cheap foreign holidays and the opening of the Severn Bridge in the 1960s. Regular ferries ceased serving Birnbeck in 1971 and the final excursion was made 19 October 1979. The pleasure "steamers" PS Waverley and MV Balmoral still operate in the Bristol Channel, but any calls at Weston are made by a connecting tender from Knightstone Harbour. Dereliction In 1984, £1 million of damage was caused to the pier by drifting equipment during engineering work in Sand Bay, to the north of the pier. The damage was quickly repaired, despite fears that Birnbeck might become like nearby Clevedon Pier, which at the time was severed by a collapsed span. The pier was again badly damaged by storms in 1990 and was closed for safety reasons in 1994. Daily trips during the summer months to and from Cardiff, Clevedon, and Penarth were suspended indefinitely. Due to the decline, English Heritage has placed it on the Heritage at Risk Register. In 1999, the lifeboat station installed a walkway across the pier to allow them safe access to the island, at a cost of £20,000. In 2006 the pier was sold to Manchester company Urban Splash. The new owners and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launched a competition in August 2007, inviting people to submit ideas for the regeneration of the pier and