The original funding offer was withdrawn, IIRC, because of the legal issues mounted by the previous owner. It seems to have been a combination of him, CCBC's incompetence and bad weather that's doomed the thing.
Yes, and I also think that certain influential people in (and associated with) CCBC have had a strong intent (going back years) to get rid of the pier. The reasons they've cited have changed over time, but it's been constant in one sense -
get rid of it. As a result CCBC has seemed two-faced - on one hand seeming to cheerlead for the pier when it was awarded a £594,900 development grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund four years ago. But then, only six months later, using a dubious, inflated, somewhat arbitrary, but widely-publicised refurbishment estimate, as a licence to vote to demolish and return the lottery money.
I think an earlier variant of the campaign group (Shore Thing?) gave CCBC the benefit of the doubt at one point, but then later it became clear (from their social media posts) that they'd lost any faith or trust in the council. Presumably there are new personnel in the latest variant of the pier campaigning group - and they didn't see that CCBC were still intent on getting rid of the pier, and in using all available justifications for doing so (so as to avoid the wrath of the public they are supposed to represent).