The director of the biggest tourist attraction in the South-East has launched an attack on the redevelopment of the West Pier.

David Biesterfield, director of the Noble Organisation, which owns the Palace Pier, said the scheme to redevelop the derelict structure was a waste of public money and would become "a lottery-funded loser".

He said Brighton could not hope to support two piers in the future.

The Palace Pier is currently changing its name to Brighton Pier in a move thought to be aimed at pre-empting the West Pier redevelopment. Mr Biesterfield said the Palace Pier would be facing unfair competition from its neighbour once it reopened.

Revelations about the Millennium Dome, in London, which received a further £29 million handout this week, highlighted an enormous waste of public money and the way in which lottery cash was being used to distort fair competition, he said.

Mr Biesterfield added: "In Brighton the derelict West Pier is being given £15 million of lottery funding to compete head-on with the Palace Pier, whose own preservation as a listed building has been financed by private funding alone.

"All applications by the Palace Pier for grant aid have been refused. To add to the iniquity, the West Pier is to be given dedicated car parking, gold dust in Brighton. Brighton will not sustain two piers.

"When the West Pier again runs into trouble, no doubt it will follow the lead of other lottery-funded losers such as the Dome, the Doncaster Earth Centre and the Sheffield Centre for Popular Music and return for even more public subsidy."

The West Pier development is being held up by complicated negotiations between the Brighton West Pier Trust and its private sector partners.

Trust general manager Rachel Clark said: "We have never seen ourselves in competition with the Palace Pier. The Palace Pier and the West Pier co-existed happily for many decades in the past and can do so again."