Decision time looms for the latest leisure firm hoping to breathe life into an empty seafront venue.

Brighton magistrates are due to decide this week whether to grant a licence for a £1.8 million cafe-bar at the Aquarium Terraces in Madeira Drive, Brighton.

Manchester-based Inventive Leisure, which runs Revolution vodka bars across the UK, applied for the licence last month after a series of rival firms abandoned plans for the site.

Nightclub operator Po Na Na had won permission to open a 1,040-capacity, £1.5 million super-club using the vacant premises.

However, the plans were dropped after the cash-strapped firm went into administration last May.

Before that, Liverpool-based nightclub firm Cream dropped plans for a 1,750-capacity venue and the expensive, underoccupied Terraces development was labelled a "white elephant".

But Inventive Leisure has insisted its venture could succeed.

Inventive Leisure's development manager Godfrey Russell has said the venue would not be a nightclub and would hold a maximum of 950 people.

The firm, which runs 33 Revolution bars and seven other venues, claims to specialise in the finest-quality Eastern European beers, wines and spirits.

Po Na Na was refused a late drinks licence in August last year but appealed and won a licence until 1am with conditions, including CCTV cameras and a residents' hotline to report problems.

Inventive Leisure is applying for the same licence and conditions. The licence application is due to be heard at Brighton Magistrates Court on Thursday.