What a miserable, churlish bunch some Brightonians are when they are confronted with anything new.

Next week sees the opening of the British Airways i360, a unique observation tower which has attracted interest and admiration from all over the world.

But many people in Brighton and Hove have buttonholed me say it is ugly, useless and a waste of money. I am hoping they are a minority and that most of us find it exciting.

I’d better declare an interest as a board member of the Brighton West Pier Trust which owns part of the land, otherwise someone will do it for me.

But I can safely say that even if I were not associated with the trust, I would be in favour of this bold new project.

Britain’s piers are generally in a parlous plight. There are only about 50 left of more than 100 originally and many of those are both skimpy and scruffy.

The i360 is the first major project on a pier site for decades and a welcome affirmation of Brighton’s place as the top resort in Britain.

See the pod soar as it reaches a height of 450 feet and watch the beach below reflected in its shiny exterior.

Take a trip on a fine day (discounts for locals) and see in each direction for about 30 miles.

Of course there is a risk in building anything unique as it won’t have been tested elsewhere but observation towers have proved pretty popular in many places.

I have been up them from Seattle to Auckland, from Vancouver to Brussels and enjoyed them all.

David Marks and Julia Barfield have the best possible track record in that they created the London Eye, now the most popular tourist attraction in the capital.

They have shown their commitment to the Brighton project by investing millions of their own money into it.

Much more money has been covered by a loan from the Public Works Loans Board, a perfectly legitimate way of filling funding gaps.

Often major schemes need a bit of a boost. It took more than a century to build a new public library for Brighton and when it came it was from the much-derided private finance initiative. It was expensive but it worked.

Many council-financed schemes require risks. Brighton sold downland and property to help pay for the conference centre. It borrowed money to build the Prince Regent pools.

Privately financed projects often need a strong nerve. It cost millions of pounds in Victorian times to build the railways out of Brighton but they were the making of the resort.

There was opposition to the West Pier 150 years ago but generally the big schemes since then such as the Aquarium, the Madeira Drive Terraces, and the Palace Pier have been welcomed. Oddly there was not much opposition when the i360 was given planning permission.

The grumbling has got louder each time the scheme has advanced.

Yes, of course the money (approaching £50 million) could have been spent on worthwhile social projects such as schools and the National Health Service but this is not a case of either/or.

It will attract millions more people to the resort and sprinkle some stardust on the western side of Brighton which is suffering.

But best of all it will eventually release cash which can be used to kick-start the building of a new pier.

The West Pier Trust has hundreds of members who have stuck with it in bad times and there have been plenty of those.

Most of them like me want to see a new pier as emblematic of the new century as the West Pier was of the Victorian era.

The British Airways i360 will be a wonderful attraction but the new West Pier will be even better.

I may not live to see it but I am confident that it will happen even if the few remaining moaners survive to make their small-minded rants.

The Argus:

Hove has subtly changed colour over the years from the pink of gins downed by old timers to the deep red of the only Labour Parliamentary seat outside London in the South.

It has been changed, and mainly for the better, by being next to its lively but strange neighbour Brighton.

At its best, Brighton is a positive force which is why I was so sad about the i360 moans.

Now I am noticing similar changes starting in other resorts as Brightonians, squeezed out by rising property prices, seek homes outside the city.

Quite a few people I know have gone to Worthing and Eastbourne. Both resorts, celebrated for their geriatrics, are becoming livelier each year.

Brighton has also had an effect further east on Hastings which has become almost as arty and alternative as the original.

It’s when Bognor and Bexhill become trendy that I shall know the Brighton effect can reach for many miles.