A leading architect has slammed rival plans for new buildings next to a pier.

Architect John Wells-Thorpe, architect of Hove Town Hall and a director of the West Pier Trust, believes an alternative scheme presented by campaigners trying to block a development at the West Pier in Brighton is not viable.

Save Our Seafront (SOS) has an alternative scheme for enabling development next to the West Pier.

Campaigners said the official plans by the Brighton West Pier Trust and developers St Modwen for two large pavilions on either side of the pier were ugly and would block sea views.

Instead, SOS proposed a scheme to tuck most of the development on the Lower Esplanade below the level of King's Road.

Mr Wells-Thorpe said of the rival scheme: "It is long on good intentions but woefully short on reality."

He said the idea of having cafes and restaurants in open areas was unrealistic without safety railings and some form of weather protection, which would immediately turn it into some form of building.

Its proposal also implied much shopping space would have to be artificially lit and ventilated, which would not attract a very high rental.

Mr Wells-Thorpe said for the SOS scheme to be credible, it had to encompass the same area of commercial space as the official proposal.

SOS spokesman Derek Granger said: "It was put forward mainly as one of a number of more appropriate alternatives to the grotesquely ugly and appalling scheme which has now been submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council."

A statement by LCE Archimed, architects for the SOS proposal, said: "Our proposal is simple, with potential for a large flexible lettable space which allows the architecture of the pier and the Regency square to take centre stage, which is after all what this is about - the commercial development supporting the restoration not the other way round."