TRIBUTES have poured in for a celebrated hotel and restaurant owner renowned for her flamboyance and dedication to improving the city.

Audrey Simpson was the owner of one of Brighton’s first boutique hotels, The Granville, which is on the seafront.

She served as a board member for the West Pier Trust for 15 years from 1999 to 2016, and spent some time as a food columnist for The Argus.

Rachel Clark, chief executive of West Pier Trust, said: “Audrey was a very active member of the city and she was a huge asset to our organisation.

“My first impression of Audrey was she was very flamboyant. She was very hard working and she helped us with a lot of fundraising activities.

“She was a huge supporter of the i360. She defended it fiercely at the time when there was a lot of opposition against it.”

Audrey grew up in Crewe and moved to London where she studied at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

She was an active member of the Labour Party in London before switching to the Social Democrat party in the Eighties

Audrey was also a member of the wealthy and influential Regency Society in Brighton.

Remembered by many as a fighter and for always standing up for what she believed was for the good of the city, Audrey attracted criticism from the society in 2010 for publicly backing proposals for 1,300 flats at Brighton Marina.

Along with another member, former Labour councillor Delia Forester, they faced a secret ballot which proposed to remove them from the committee.

However, both survived the bid.

Former Argus journalist Adam Trimingham said: “I knew Audrey professionally. She was very involved in the city and a lot of people knew her.

“She was very popular, vivacious, and she dressed very glamorously.

“Audrey always played her part and she liked to help others.

“In The Grand hotel bombing in 1984, Audrey still opened the Granville Hotel as a base for journalists who were covering the event.

“In those times there were no mobile phones so communication back to our offices was difficult. She allowed us to use the hotel’s phones.”

Audrey, who was in her early eighties, died on Friday. She was married to David Simpson and they had two children, Becky and Karl.