Planning problems have caused a delay of several months in reopening a popular museum.

Hove Museum in New Church Road closed last summer for major work, which included rearranging galleries and installing a lift so disabled people could reach the first floor.

Brighton and Hove City Council, which owns the former mansion, planned a reopening between August and October this year.

Now it has become clear the museum will not open until early next year.

Tories are calling for the city council to launch a scrutiny investigation into the delay.

Opposition leader Brian Oxley and Councillor Ann Norman said work on the museum only began last month, following the summer closure.

Coun Oxley said it took two years of internal discussions before a planning application was submitted and, in spite of that, there were strong conservation objections within the planning department.

He described this as a needless administrative error and said the delay was unfortunate.

City services director Paul Hart said when the application was submitted in June by the property services department, conservation officers said details were unacceptable for a prominent building in a conservation area.

There were objections to the appearance of the roof line and the need for the lift to also go to the second floor.

Changes were made to the design and the application was granted by officials under delegated powers.

However, the start of work was delayed as the contract sum had to be renegotiated to take account of the changes.

A contractor was appointed in December and work started in January.

Mr Hart said the property department could have put in the application earlier but had not anticipated any problems.

There were staffing problems in the planning department last summer, which caused delays in dealing with the application.