A SEASIDE council has been forced to write off a £51 million debt owed by a publicly funded tourist attraction following its collapse.

Brighton and Hove City Council leaders expressed their anger at the move to help observation tower i360 so it can be sold and get back in business.

The tower filed for administration just days before Christmas last year after it failed to find a buyer, closing with immediate effect and making 109 employees redundant.

In 2014 the council, then led by the Green Party, loaned the project millions of pounds and remains the attraction’s biggest creditor.

At a cabinet meeting on Thursday night, Labour council deputy leader and finance chief Jacob Taylor told colleagues no sale would go through without the debt being written off.

Council leader Bella Sankey described the decision to finance a tourist attraction with public money as “absolutely scandalous” and one which would “cast a shadow” on the council for years to come.

Councillors also agreed to an independent inquiry, to learn lessons from the “big mistake of capital financing.”

Mr Taylor added: “This city council cannot make a mistake of this magnitude again.”