TV cartoonist and designer Mike Jupp has launched a scathing attack on what he calls "bureaucratic snobs".

The politicians who refused to back a new pier for Bognor but have spent millions of pounds propping up the Millennium Dome.

Now he says lottery cash should be given to the unpaid organisers of events up and down the country that really pull in the crowds.

Two years ago Mike designed a futuristic new pier for Bognor which looked like it came straight from the pages of a sci-fi novel.

The idea took off and eventually won its way on to a national shortlist of projects which went in front of the Millennium Commission for a major lottery grant.

Experts predicted the new pier would attract 250,000 visitors a year and put Bognor back on the map as a major seaside resort.

The new pier would have been built a quarter of a mile away from the town's existing Victorian structure to show old and new, but at the very last moment the commissioners decided against awarding a £20 million grant.

Mr Jupp spoke out as a Japanese bank which had been bidding to buy the Dome pulled out of the £105 million deal.

He said: "The Dome has suffered the same fate as my home town. The people in charge of the purse strings are unimaginative, bureaucratic snobs."

Mr Jupp, who created TV cartoon hits Dreamstone and Bimble's Bucket, was the guest judge at a sandcastle building competition during last weekend's Sands of Time festival at Bognor which attracted thousands of people to the town.

He said: "The weekend was organised by and for ordinary people and was a success because of what was on offer.

"Instead of building fake beaches under a billion pound Frisbee that no one visits, give the money to the unpaid organisers of Sands of Time and thousands like them up and down our country because they know what we like and want.

"These people do it again and again through hard work and enthusiasm on a shoestring and without a spin doctor in sight."

He added: "Bognor was once a beautiful resort that attracted crowds the Dome would die for, but it too has been murdered by bland committee grey suits on a guaranteed and safe income who would not be seen dead near a whelk stall, which is more the pity."