Decision time looms for the latest leisure firm hoping to breathe life into an empty seafront venue in Brighton.

Brighton magistrates are due to decide this week whether to grant a licence for a £1.8 million cafe-bar at the Aquarium Terraces in Madeira Drive.

Manchester-based Inventive Leisure, which runs Revolution vodka bars across the UK, applied for the licence last month after a series of rival firms abandoned plans for the site.

Nightclub operator Po Na Na had won permission to open a 1,040-capacity, £1.5 million super-club using the vacant premises.

However, the plans were dropped after the cash-strapped firm went into administration last May.

Before that, Liverpool-based nightclub firm Cream dropped plans for a 1,750-capacity venue and the expensive, under-occupied Terraces development was labelled a "white elephant".

But Inventive Leisure has insisted its venture could succeed.

Inventive Leisure's development manager Godfrey Russell has said the venue would not be a nightclub and would hold a maximum of 950 people.

The firm, which runs 33 Revolution bars and seven other venues, claims to specialise in the finest-quality Eastern European beers, wines and spirits.

Po Na Na was refused a late drinks licence in August last year but appealed and won a licence until 1am with conditions, including CCTV cameras and a residents' hotline to report problems.

Inventive Leisure is applying for the same licence and conditions. The licence application is due to be heard at Brighton Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Tuesday November 04, 2003