"[6] The following year the Secretary of State for Transport, Douglas Alexander, amended legislation which would have otherwise threatened the project due to restrictive land lease terms.

[8] Visitor numbers never reached those projected and, in December 2022, having also felt the impact of the Covid pandemic on the tourism industry, the i360 defaulted on the debt it owed the council.

[13] The tower is designed as a 162 m (531 ft) tall needle structure with an ascending and descending circular viewing platform with capacity for 200 people.

The tower's initial design had included a wind turbine at the top and rainwater harvesting facilities, to help mitigate the attraction's environmental impact.

In October 2015 the developers dropped both these proposals, claiming that the turbine would have stopped the tower's damping system from working and be susceptible to wind damage, and that the water would be "too dirty to be usable".

[14] Plans were submitted in June 2006 and were approved by Brighton and Hove city council later that year with construction projected to start in 2007.

The pod provides a 360-degree view through curved glass and is heated and air-conditioned, with full wheelchair accessibility and bench seating.

[19] English Heritage felt that the 2006 plan would "provide an outstanding feature on the seafront, and a worthy companion to any successor to the West Pier".

[20] In a statement, the West Pier Trust hoped that the project would "regenerate a key blighted city site and send out a loud message that Brighton is open for business".

The architect, Marks Barfield, sold its stake in the London Eye and found financial backers to build the tower.

[23] Critics say the case for the i360 was based on unrealistic projections of visitor numbers, figures the council kept secret, even fighting in the courts to prevent them being revealed.

[29] In June 2018, disappointing visitor numbers forced the owners to ask Brighton and Hove city council and the LEP for better loan repayment terms.

What we would also need to hear is some contrition, some reflection that this is adding to the burden on the city...The rest of us can look up and down the coast and see places like Shelter Hall doing really well.

[44] A broken cable in February 2017 caused passengers to become stuck part way through the ride for two hours, and the i360 was closed over the weekend for repairs.

Similarly, a year before the local elections due to take place in May 2023, the Labour group on the council began to describe the i360 as a "Green/Tory vanity project" noting that "with 100% public funding when private sector partners could not be found....It was a flawed business model from the outset – as we tried to convince our Green and Conservative colleagues of at the time.

"[51] Yet, when the i360 opened in 2016, then council leader, Labour's Warren Morgan, spoke positively about the attraction, which he noted would be "a great addition to our seafront.

Irrespective of the reasons for the timing of any position change on the Labour group's part, the i360 has become a politically contentious issue in the city.

"[56] Writing in The Independent on the day following the launch, Janet Street-Porter described it as "a piss-poor replacement for Brighton's West Pier.

"[56] During the planning and construction of the tower, a number of local residents and groups campaigned against the building of the tower and the public loan, with a petition[57] gaining 1,449 signatures, including those of architects Paul Zara of Conran & Partners and Paul Nicholson of Chalk Architecture; the writer and broadcaster Simon Fanshawe and Malcolm Dawes, chairman of the Brighton Society.

[64] In November 2022, violinist Esther Abrami released a music video of "Walking in the Air" composed and arranged by Howard Blake for violin and piano, featuring a nighttime performance from the roof of the tower.

[65] In June 2023, the Council "approved plans to site three shipping containers next to the i360 temporarily to house a virtual cricket game known as Sixes.

The i360 said "that immersive game" was part of a plan to draw more people to the venue, with a chance to “eat, drink and bat” in each of the three containers'"[66]