NEW options are being looked at for the site of the Brighton Wheel with hopes to re-invigorate that part of the seafront after the attraction shuts down this year.

The operators of the 50 metre Ferris wheel said they are in discussions with Brighton and Hove City Council about the future of the Daltons Bastion site on the seafront and it is hoped details will emerge within weeks.

The Brighton Wheel team were told last summer the attraction would have to be dismantled before May 19 this year.

Wheel management refuted media reports they were planning to take the council to court and said “the Wheel is working positively with Brighton and Hove City Council looking at options for the site”.

The council said the discussions were still in “early days” so could not release any details but councillors were optimistic and said the site is important the “reinvigoration of the seafront”.

A row erupted a year ago when the Wheel’s bosses Paramount Entertainments announced they hoped to keep the attraction open until 2021.

The i360 team said they had been led to understand the rival attraction’s lease would not be renewed and it would be taken down before the viewing tower opened.

And last June councillors on the city's planning committee voted 6 to 4 in favour of not allowing the Wheel to stay past its current permission.

Any plans between the Wheel team and the city council for the Daltons Bastion site will have to be approved by the authority’s economic development and culture committee.

Councillor Robert Nemeth said: “Getting the scheme right is not only important to the site itself, but also to the wider issue of the reinvigoration of the seafront.”

He added: "The operators of the Wheel are an incredibly enterprising team and will no doubt be releasing details of their plans for Dalton's Bastion soon.

“As a member of the economic development and culture committee, I very much look forward to hearing more in the coming weeks."