Brighton Wheel to be shut down ahead of i360 tower opening

The Brighton Wheel, which was opened in 2011, will be shut down ahead of the i360 tower opening.

Brighton and Hove City Council Planning Committee rejected plans to renew the Wheel’s lease for another five years, and that it would shut down all operations by may 2016, six weeks before the planned opening date of the i360.

Councillors were opposed to the Wheel remaining open because of its opposing impact to the nearby historic buildings and homes.

This decision means that the council is remaining with its original plan of granting the Wheel a five year stay on the coast. This prevents two tourists attractions competing against each other.

Steel parts for the i360, the world’s first-ever vertical cable car viewing tower, have already arrived on Brighton beach in preparing for the construction work. Costing £46.2m, the project is expected to generate more than 440 permanent jobs, and attract over 700,000 tourists which could boost £25m of revenue to Brighton’s economy annually.

As for the Brighton Wheel staff, Eleanor Harris, chief executive of the i360, has stated: “We will guarantee to interview all the Brighton Wheel staff when it closes next year.”

Paula Murray, council assistant chief executive, also said, via ITV:

“Further to the meetings held last year and our subsequent correspondence regarding your desire to extend the lease for the Brighton Wheel, I thought that it was appropriate to re-iterate the position of the council as Landlord of the Dalton’s Bastion site, particularly as you have a Planning Application to extend the planning permission for the Wheel on that site pending. The council as Landlord has not changed its view from that expressed to you last year in that the council does not intend to give permission for the Wheel and the i360 to be operational at the same time. This is explained in more detail in the attached response that the council made to the Local Planning Authority in respect of the Planning Application you have submitted. No doubt you are aware of this response but it is attached for ease of reference. Therefore, should the application to extend the Planning Application be approved and you decide to request the council as Landlord to extend the lease for the Wheel to continue operating on the site, the council will not be in a position to give Landlord’s consent for a lease extension. As I have said to you before, I know that this is not welcome news to you and for that I am sorry. I hope that you can find another suitable coastal site for the Wheel when it ceases here.”

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