THE new owner of the Palace Pier told The Argus he has been blown away by the city's passion for the attraction.

We revealed Eclectic Bar Group Plc acquired the pier for £18 million on Friday last week and since then city has been engulfed in a frenzy with a petition to rename the pier reaching more than 2,000 and one of the city’s high profile figures lambasting the structure.

Luke Johnson, executive chairman of Eclectic Group, said: “It’s been extraordinary in terms of the reaction, the vast majority of which has been very civil and positive, I’m thankful for that.

“I’m blown away by how much affection people have, particularly in Brighton and Hove, for the pier.

“How important it is to them symbolically and actually and it’s been really fascinating."

On Monday, Julian Caddy – managing director of Brighton Fringe – said he hated the pier and described it as a "blot on the seafront", something Mr Johnson admitted stopped him in his tracks.

He said: “I think, frankly, reading Julian’s piece did really make me stop and think, but as I say – everyone is entitled to their opinion.

“I was very amused to read all the comments below on The Argus website.”

When he took the project on, he had an inkling it would be a big talking point.

“I had a sneaking suspicion because when you see the amount of people that visit it, the history of it and so forth, you expect it to gain a bit of attention,” he said.

“But I didn’t think it would be this much.”

Another talking point has been residents’ desire to see the pier reverted to its original name following this newspaper’s revival of the Put the Palace Back in the Pier campaign.

And as the petition continues to gather momentum, the name change is still on the table according to Mr Johnson.

He said: “We're thinking about all that, but we’ll not rush to do anything and we’ll take our time to consider any change.

“One of the key points is that we’re now more or less into the summer season and making any material changes short term wouldn’t be right because it’d be far too disruptive.

“For the winter and next year, it’s more feasible, obviously.”