I FIND it astonishing that Brighton and Hove City Council can suddenly, in a time of austerity, find £14 million to loan to the developers of the proposed i360 viewing tower (The Argus, May 1).

The original rationale of this tower was as an enabling development for the restoration or rebuilding of the West Pier.

I don’t recall, during all the years when the restoration of the pier was still a viable proposition, any council offering up any funding.

Maybe, if it had come up with such a loan ten years or more ago, we would by now have a beautifully restored West Pier.

Maybe, if it was even now to offer this sum to the West Pier Trust instead of to Marks Barfield, we could still have a restored or rebuilt West Pier.

I believe most citizens of Brighton and Hove would love to see the return of the West Pier in some form, whereas they are highly sceptical of the merits of the i360 and the commercial claims being made for it. Those anticipated 800,000 visitors a year, with the creation of 500 jobs, sound like pie, or should that be doughnut, in the sky.

But then the West Pier Trust themselves seem long ago to have thrown in the sponge so far as their original objective is concerned.

They have admitted the West Pier will never now be restored to its former glory, and have sold off many historic artefacts.

As so often seems to happen, the “enabling development” has become the main objective.

Graham Chainey, Marine Parade, Brighton

I READ that Brighton and Hove City Council is considering loaning £14 million to “kickstart” the perfectly hideous and unnecessary i360 viewing tower.

It claims it doesn’t have the money to collect residents’ green waste, yet is thinking of doing this. I am appalled.

Anne Johnson, Kensington Place, Brighton