BRICKS which were laid just two years ago as part of a multi-million project could be ripped up as they are a marginally different colour to the i360's new paving.

Brighton and Hove City Council is considering digging up the bricks along the King's Road Arches, which reportedly cost £750,000.

The local authority said it follows concerns that they clash with the bricks for the i360's new event space and piazza.

A spokesman added that the original bricks used are no longer in production.

But seafront traders have said the difference in colour is “ludicrously small” and that digging up any existing bricks is unnecessary.

They are also unhappy about the prospect of further disruption outside their shops having lived in the shadow of the i360’s construction over the past two years.

The first shops in the King's Road Arches opened in 2014 as part of a £5 million project.

Additional improvements to landscaping around the £46.2 million i360 were announced in October with plans for a flexible event space and piazza to be funded by a £1.4 million loan and repaid through the i360's revenue.

Traders said access to their shops could be cut off for up to three weeks while paving was ripped up in front of their stores. Building work disruptions could then last for four months.

In a bid to diffuse the growing row, council officers have offered a compromise where paving outside shops will remain but new bricks are laid to create a “transition from the existing paving to the new.”

Lisa Gorrie, owner of Banana Louis Hair Studio, said: “To the naked eye, the different bricks look exactly the same.

“Even if the council was able to get the original bricks they would look different because the other ones have already been down two years.

“It really is nonsensical, we are nine new businesses who will now be living in a building site for our first three years, we just wanted it all to be done when the i360 opened.”

Another affected trader, who did not wish to be named, said: “We were seeing light at the end of the tunnel after living with a building site for the past two years and now it seems that we will be having parts of the seafront hoarded off into another year."

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said that the authority’s favoured option would allow traders to remain open.

He added: “Clearly there will be some disturbance but we’re asking people to bear with us as we try to secure the seafront’s future.

“We are now designing the landscaping on either side of the i360 and trying to work out what should be done about the fact that any new blocks will not match the old ones in colour or size.

“We are anxious to avoid damaging the appearance of the arches scheme.”

The council refused to state how much could cost.

SENSE OF DEJA VU OVER BRICKS THAT ARE WRONG COLOUR

RIP it up and start again is fast becoming the soundtrack to improvement works around Brighton and Hove.

Readers may get a sense of déjà vu with the news the council is considering tearing up bricks laid just two years ago along the seafront as they are deemed the wrong colour.

Last July, council contractors were forced to dig up and replace new paving slabs in the public square outside Brighton Railway Station because they were also the wrong colour.

Suppliers Tobermore apologised and said they would meet the extra costs of digging up and relaying new stones in the right colour after admitting the first set of slabs fell below their “world-class standards”.

November 2015 saw the pedestrian crossing at the junction of Queen’s Road and at Upper Gloucester Road ripped up and replaced after the wrong type of kerbs were put in.

Brighton and Hove City Council said at the time that lessons had been learned over the construction methods after the kerb broke and the newly laid paving slabs began to move.

And the heavy machinery was out in force again after problems were uncovered on the newly resurfaced junction of Goldstone Villas and Clarendon Road in Hove.

Repairs were also needed for the £950,000 Seven Dials roundabout which began cracking under the weight of traffic just a year after it was completed in December 2013.