A multi-million-pound Olympic skating arena will be up and running in four years.

Developers have pledged to build the seafront palace of wood and glass by 2007 and say its first full year of operation will be 2008.

The scheme was approved in principle last night when Brighton and Hove city councillors chose it for the Black Rock site left derelict since 1978.

The policy committee decided Brighton International Arena (BIA) was its preferred developer for the old swimming pool site at the eastern end of Madeira Drive.

Olympic stars Jayne Torvill and Robin Cousins are among those behind the project, which will bring back the glory days of ice to the city 40 years after the demolition of the old Sports Stadium in West Street.

Mr Cousins, a BIA director, said: "We are all very much looking forward to this going ahead and bringing back the Brighton Tigers."

The scheme was selected instead of an international hotel and spa submitted by the RH Partnership and Sir Rocco Forte.

The multi-purpose arena, capable of seating up to 11,500, will include two Olympic-sized ice pads.

It will be able to stage European ice hockey tournaments, concerts, exhibitions, conferences and other sports such as tennis and basketball.

There will also be a low-rise block of 64 flats, 40 per cent of which will be affordable homes.

The council and BIA will have to overcome concerns about how the scheme will fit in with a nearby conservation area and transport to the site.

Brighton Kemp Town Labour MP Des Turner said: "This will be fantastic for the young and young at heart.

"It is important the proposals do not have a negative impact on the historic Kemp Town seafront, so I am particularly pleased the roofline will be planted and will be below the cliffs.

"The council will need to continue pushing for planning agreements with the developer giving first-class transport links along the seafront from the marina into the city."

But Derek Granger, of the Kemp Town Society, said the council had ignored its own planning brief for the site, which had mentioned a hotel.

He said the society would see if a legal challenge could be mounted to the decision.

Professor Stephen Adutt, of the RH Partnership, said the hotel and spa scheme with adjoining winter garden would still be a possibility if negotiations with BIA failed.

He said the council's report had favoured BIA and even before its evaluation, the authority had been in favour of an ice arena.

A report to councillors said the ice arena would attract two million visits a year and would increase tourism spending in the city by £4.36 million a year.

The arena could create about 500 jobs during construction and almost 300 once it was up and running within four years.

Rottingdean coastal Tory councillor David Smith, who will have the arena in his ward, welcomed the project.

He said there would be concerns about transport but big events in the arena would tend to take place in the evenings when there would be less conflict with other traffic.