Eastbourne Council knew it would be forced to sell Belle Tout lighthouse two years before it happened, it emerged last night.

The lighthouse near Beachy Head is being sold to Louise Roberts, the wife of a Tory councillor, for £900 under right to buy legislation.

The sale of the freehold was agreed between Eastbourne Borough Council and Mrs Roberts as long ago as 1998.

That was before an appeal to raise £250,000 to move the 18th Century lighthouse from its precarious position on the crumbling clifftop.

But many councillors say they were not made aware of the development until the sale was a fait accompli.

Mrs Roberts and her husband Mark, who later became a Tory member of Eastbourne Borough Council, had already applied for planning permission for the move and taken over the 90-year lease.

Mrs Roberts' solicitor, Stephen Rimmer, of Stephen Rimmer & Co Solicitors, wrote to the council in November 1998 asking for confirmation that the freehold sale would be able to go ahead.

Under the 1967 Leasehold Reform Act, holders of long-term leases are entitled to buy the freehold on their property when they have lived there continuously for two years.

Mr Rimmer said: "I also asked the council to confirm the price payable would be calculated on the basis of the building in its cliff edge location.

"I went on to say, 'I believe that this is agreed as otherwise my client would in effect be penalised for moving the building."

Three months later, the council agreed Mrs Roberts would be entitled to buy the freehold of the building for £900.

When the deal is completed, Mr and Mrs Roberts will be able to do what they want with the lighthouse - including selling it. Its market value is an estimated £250,000-plus.

The news has shocked many people who donated towards the cost of moving the lighthouse, believing it would be for the public good.

Chairman of the Eastbourne Society Owen Boydell said: "A lot of people put a lot of effort into moving the lighthouse and I think it is entirely wrong that someone should benefit from what was public money and very much a citizens' concern."

Opposition councillors say they knew nothing about the deal until it was announced in a memo to four members of the Downland Advisory Group.

Many believed the lighthouse was covered by a legal obligation on the council to keep the Eastbourne Downland in perpetuity for the people of the town.

Coun Maurice Skelton, chair of the strategic planning and corporate resources scrutiny committee, said: "I think the sale of the freehold is a very sad step and I will do everything in my power to stop it.

"The whole thing is absolutely scandalous and I am going to call it in to my next scrutiny committee to get some complete answers."

Upperton ward Tory councillor Ann Murray, who sits on the Conservation Area Advisory Group, said: "It's a shame that it is passing in to private hands, but the Act says if you are a leaseholder you can buy after a certain time."

Eastbourne Borough Council said it had no control over the freehold, which it was legally obliged to sell to Mrs Roberts. It has denied deliberately keeping the public and its own members in the dark.

Home Office spokesman, Gavin McGuire, said: "If someone has been living in a property with a long lease for two years then they have the right to buy the freehold.

"The council, as the owner of the building, would be legally obliged to let them do this and it would not have to go to a vote or be declared in public."