Plans for a seafront tower have sparked fears its neighbours would be forced to live in its shadow.

The ten-storey glass building, on the site of the former Caffyns garage in Kingsway, Hove, would back on to a suburban street and overlook Hove lagoon.

It would be accompanied by a second building of flats, shops and offices, ranging in height from two to eight storeys.

Forty of the estimated 100 flats would be allocated as low-cost housing.

Berkeley Homes, which intends to submit a detailed planning application to Brighton and Hove City Council by the end of the month, said the proposal for the tower came from the city council's tall buildings policy, which has earmarked several sites as suitable for sky-high structures.

Development director for Berkeley's southern region Angus Michie said: "If it's going to be a building of height it needs to be a quality building."

Berkeley chose Alan Phillips Associates, a local firm of architects, to draw up the plans for the development.

Mr Michie denied he was trying to cram more apartments upwards to boost profits. He said: "Tall buildings are often expensive to construct and we are responding to the pattern of development on the waterfront. The tower will fit in with the area and we want to make best use of this brownfield site."

Berkeley has carried out a series of consultation events to set out its initial plans to the community.

If its planning application is accepted, construction could begin immediately and the tower could be up by 2006.

But neighbours are hoping to stop the development in its tracks.

Information technology consultant Steve Corbett, 50, of Roman Road, which joins Kingsway, said he was astounded at the proposed height of the tower.

The father-of-two, who is encouraging neighbours to complain to the developers, said: "The sheer scale and density of the project concerns me. This is a residential area and it seems they are just trying to be greedy and squeeze as much as possible into a small space."

Mr Corbett said the tower would be a poor replacement for the Thirties' Caffyns garage which was demolished last summer.

He said: "The principle of tall buildings is not too bad but they need to be in an appropriate area."

Other concerns of neighbours are lack of parking space and the likely added strain placed on local services.

Jane Waite, a 41-year-old computer worker from Roman Road, questioned whether the neighbourhood could withstand an extra 100 families moving into such a small area when local schools were already over-subscribed.

She said: "It's such a huge number of people in such a small space. It would be like squeezing a whole new road of people into what should be about nine family homes. We have to say 'no' to high-rise Hove."

Concerns were also raised about homeowners being forced to live in the shadow of the tower, particularly in the winter months.

Mother Karen Belton, 41, of Roman Road, said the structure would cut her sunshine in winter and block her view of the sea.

An amateur astronomer she had calculated the ten-storey tower could deprive as many as 20 houses along her road of sunshine.

She said: "This is an incredibly ordinary suburb and people here don't want to live in an area with tower blocks. We could live in Brighton if that's what we wanted."

Garry Peltzer Dunn, the Conservative group leader on Brighton and Hove City Council, said the outline plans were out of place.

He said: "It should be a sympathetic development. It shouldn't be overpowering in size and shouldn't cause traffic problems. I think five storeys could be justified but we would have great difficulty with anything taller."