A SEAFRONT protest group has claimed lifts installed on Pier Hill as part of a multi-million-pound development are not up to the job.

Save Our Seashore campaigner Sheena Walker says they are "extremely cheap and wholly inadequate for use as a public lift."

Mrs Walker, who as part of Save Our Seashore has campaigned against the expansion of Westcliff Casino, has added her voice to the many upset about the lifts being out of action for most of the summer.

She said: "Apparently the council accepted a bid for a lift system based on the mechanism of temporary outdoor lifts used in construction and other industries. "Once such lifts have served their purpose, they are simply dismantled and taken away."

Council technical services director David Watts said: "We, like everybody else, are not happy with the lifts not working.

"We have asked for an independent report and we are ironing out the details of that at this very moment.

"Once the report is finished we will see what action we can take."