A developer's vision for a 420ft skyscraper offering spectacular views across the Sussex coastline is a major step closer to becoming reality.

The tower, dubbed the Roaring Forties, has been recommended for approval by city council planning officers.

This is the first test of critical opinion on the 40-storey building, planned as the centrepiece of the £265 million redevelopment of Brighton Marina.

It will be interpreted as a ringing endorsement of the scheme and is based on an objective assessment of the viability of the project, uncoloured by political bias.

The needle-like tower would be the tallest building in Sussex and would feature a public viewing gallery on the top floor with stunning views of the coast.

Andrew Goodall, boss of Brunswick Developments, which submitted the planning application, said: "This scheme has been designed by world-class architects and will be absolutely amazing.

"It is going to have a major positive impact not only on Brighton Marina but on the city as a whole. It will strengthen the link between the marina and the rest of the city and there's no doubt Brighton and Hove will be a better place to be once it is completed.

"We want to make Brighton and Hove proud of the marina and this development will go further to achieving that."

Proposals for ten smaller buildings at the tower's base were also recommended for approval by planning officials yesterday.

The scheme would provide 988 new apartments. Private flats would cost between £200,000 and £2 million but 395 of the flats are earmarked for low-cost homes.

Mr Goodall hopes construction will begin early next year and be completed by 2012.

The first occupiers would move in at the end of 2007.

The 11 residential buildings would sit next to the West Quay on a platform over the sea and a quarter of a mile from the cliff. The council's planning committee will decide if it wants to ratify its officials' recommendation to approve the development on November 11.

Mr Goodall said: "It will curve in and out by using different size floor plates, and will almost have a Coca-Cola bottle shape to it. It will have balconies down the centre, making it look, from a distance, like two curving, slender towers."

Architects Wilkinson Eyre, responsible for the spectacular Gateshead Millennium Bridge. which spans the Tyne, designed the development.

A swing bridge would allow people to walk or cycle all the way around the marina for the first time, while a smaller bridge across Black Rock beach would give easier access.

There would also be a new walkway linking the marina to the Palace Pier and space for additional restaurants and bars in West Quay.

Mr Goodall said: "Our scheme will make the marina part of the city."

The development would be environmentally friendly with street lighting powered by the sun.

One criticism of the scheme has been that the proposed 176 extra parking spaces will not be enough.

Mr Goodall said he was confident the 1,045 cycle racks and a car club with up to 50 vehicles would provide acceptable alternatives to the car.

Brunswick would also put £1 million into the proposed rapid transport system of bendy buses.

Campaigners have criticised the scheme as an overdevelopment. They have mounted a legal challenge on the basis that the Brighton Marina Act 1968 states nothing can be built taller than the height of the cliff.

There is a section which allows the city council to vary the Act's terms. But campaigners have also uncovered transcripts of parliamentary debates suggesting the clause was only ever intended to allow the council to allow the construction of basic features such as lamp-posts.

However, Mr Goodall said the act was not a planning consideration.

Campaigners are planning to hold a demonstration at the marina during a visit by councillors at 2pm today.

Council officers suggested a number of caveats should be inserted into any planning permission. These included:

More than £1.2 million to be put towards sustainable transport
Establishment of a car club and an electric buggy shuttle service for
disabled visitors Provision of a new bus/taxi waiting room and enhancement of pedestrian and cyclist routes
£875,000 to be allocated for outdoor sports and recreation l £330,000 to enhance educational facilities in the city
The council report can be seen on www.brighton-hove.gov.uk.

The planning committee meeting, which is open to the public, will take place at Hove Town Hall on November 11 at 2pm.