A 40-storey tower is to be built at Brighton Marina after councillors agreed to overrule a 38-year-old ban on skyscrapers at the site.

Protesters say the 420ft tower will look "totally out of place" at the marina and are calling for a judicial inquiry into the decision.

Members of Brighton and Hove City Council's planning committee met at a packed Hove Town Hall last night to discuss whether the tower should go ahead.

Labour councillor Francis Tonks said: "I am opposed to building tower blocks on the seafront. Some of our worst architecture is there. We do not want to become Croydon-on-Sea."

Some members said that 40 years ago the Brighton Corporation, which became the city council, had promised never to build skyscrapers at the marina. Despite searches by council officers, no record of the promise could be found.

Council leader Simon Burgess said the tower would bring much-needed new homes, 40 per cent of them affordable. He said: "This is an opportunity to put the city on the world map with a first class development that will make a difference to peoples' lives."

After a debate in which 23 councillors spoke, 37 voted in favour and 14 against.

Hours before the meeting, angry demonstrators were outside the hall, shouting slogans including "No to the Tower" and "Save Brighton Marina".

The Marina Action Group had hoped a condition in the Brighton Marina Act 1968 would scupper developer Brunswick Group's plans for the tower. The Act says the construction of anything taller than the cliffs behind the marina should not go ahead.

But, acting on advice from independent legal adviser Mary Macpherson, councillors said planning permission could be granted despite the ban.

She said the developer would have a strong case for appealing if permission was refused because of the ban.

Speaking outside the meeting Peter Martin, of the Marina Action Group, said: "This council has received more than 6,000 objections to the tower. How many more people have to write in? We are going to press for a judicial review."

Lesley Darlow, 54, of The Strand, Brighton Marina, said she was worried paramedics and fire crews would struggle to get to the site if there were a disaster.