THE i360 has announced the appointment of a new boss – five months after previous chief executive Eleanor Harris left the role.

Steve Bax will leave English Heritage to become the executive director on July 3.

The company said the delay was because recruiting at executive level “takes time” to get the right candidate, with senior staff and board members filling in in the meantime.

The world’s tallest moving observation tower opened in August and attracted its 100,000 visitor within its first month.

The Argus can reveal the attraction has already paid back more than £2 million in fees and loan interest repayments to the council as part of the £36.2 million funding agreement with the Public Works Loan Board.

A loan interest and principal payment of £1.492 million is due at the end of June.

In October, the 30-year-old son of architects and i360 board members David Marks and Julie Barfield, Benjamin Marks-Barfield, became an unpaid non-executive director.

As part of his new duties, Mr Bax will have to help the attraction overcome reliability issues which have seen customers stuck in the viewing pod for several hours.

He has worked in the tourism sector for more than a decade and is currently English Heritage’s historic properties director for London and the East.

He began his career at English Heritage selling admissions tickets from a kiosk and has since led the opening of the Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth Castle and overseen improvements at Bolsover Castle, Eltham Palace, Kenwood House and Audley End House.

The 46-year-old was born and raised in Margate and said the seaside holds a special place in his heart.

He replaces Ms Harris who announced she was stepping down from the attraction less than four months after it opened – citing the Southern Rail dispute among her reasons. She took up the role of director with the Royal Museums Greenwich in January.

Chairman David Marks said: “Steve is highly respected within the UK tourism industry and his wealth of experience makes him the ideal person to take British Airways i360 to new heights.”