Brighton and Hove City Council will order an independent investigation into how public money was loaned for the i360.

Today, the landmark shut and 109 staff members were made redundant as administrators search for a buyer of the site.

An independent external audit will look into the decision to lend millions of pounds of public money to Brighton i360 Ltd for the construction of the project in 2014.

The decision now means the council will be liable to pay back more than £32 million in debts from the attraction now that it has closed.

Councillor Jacob Taylor, finance lead for Brighton and Hove City Council, said: “Investment in Brighton i360 has clearly been a financial disaster for the council.

"Although the attraction has provided jobs, and brought in business rates, regeneration of this site did not require such high public investment and the amount of money left unpaid to the council is money we now cannot spend on frontline service delivery.

“It’s important there is an investigation into how the decision at the time of agreeing the loan came to be made and learn lessons for the future.”

The project, costing £46 million, was partly funded by a £36.2 million loan from Brighton and Hove City Council.

The council received this money from the government through the Public Works Loan Board.

In October 2022, The Argus exclusively revealed overestimated visitor projections were instrumental in swaying councillors to approve the publicly funded loan.

The business case estimated that 823,000 visitors would come in the first year, 802,000 in the second, 780,000 in the third and 690,000 in the year after.

The Green-led council, spearheaded by their leader Jason Kitcat, were backed by the Conservatives to grant the loan.

When the attraction opened in 2016, the business case estimations turned out to be inaccurate.

"Uninflated" projections estimated the attraction would receive £11 million in total revenue in 2018. Its inflated projections claimed this figure would be £12.2 million.

However, according to public documents, the i360's gross revenue in the 2018/2019 financial year was £6.3 million. In the year to June 30, 2021, this fell to £2.9 million.

Only in its first year did the number of visitors go above the amount needed to pay back the loan - 503,000. But only 344,000 people visited in 2018, which is a far cry from the 801,000 people projected in the business case.

Brighton i360 Ltd’s debts to Brighton and Hove City Council hit £48 million in June 2023.

The debt officially topped £50 million as of December 31 last year.