High price to pay? Observation tower divides Brighton

That has left critics accusing Brighton council of putting public funds at risk for the sake of a visual abomination.

Valerie Payton, who is organising a campaign against its construction, said: The i360 will be profoundly out of keeping with the rest of the seafront. It will be a huge, wide and monstrously tall steel structure that will be omnipresent and visible from wherever you look in the city and beyond.

The i360, designed by David Marks and Julia Barfield, the husband and wife team behind the London Eye wheel on the capitals South Bank, has lain on the drawing board for the past eight years.

But although it received planning permission in 2006 it stalled after being unable to attract the required investment from private lenders.

After a number of potential investors pulled out following the global financial crisis of 2007-9, Marks Barfield Architects were left with 6m of their own money in the project, along with a 4m grant from Coast 2 Capital local enterprise partnership.

Then last month, Green and Conservative Party councillors in Brighton joined forces to vote through a loan application of 36.2m from the Public Works Loan Board to allow construction to begin.

Repayment of the loan would rely on the tower generating enough revenue from visitors.

But Mrs Payton, of the Save Hove, campaign, said: The idea of a viewing platform is hackneyed and old hat. Theres already one down the coast in Weymouth. People dont fall for that kind of thing anymore.

To cap it all the security on the loan from Brighton is the tower itself, so if it fails for any reason the city will have to repay the loan. It will be a huge white elephant, with interest payable on it.

A hoarding, covered in artists impressions and information about the i360 currently masks the spot from where the 15ft wide tower will rise high above the Brighton skyline.

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High price to pay? Observation tower divides Brighton