Decision due on Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower's lift

Councillors are due to meet later to discuss whether to remove a glass lift from Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower.

The external lift has been broken since the 558ft (179m) Hampshire attraction opened in 2005 after a five-year delay.

Last month the Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said no more attempts would be made to fix it.

Cabinet members are due to meet later to decide whether to remove it, replace it or leave it in its present state. The tower also has an internal lift.

Mr Vernon-Jackson said: "When it was first designed, it [the lift] was absolutely vital because it was a means of firemen getting in and out of the tower, if there was a problem, and disabled access.

"What we have done over the last five years is to find alternative routes and so it's no longer needed either for fire access or for disabled access - we can do that with the other lift.

"There seems to be absolutely no point in spending more money on trying to get something to work which we tried to do for years. It is not a business-sensible decision to do."

The £36m tower is the UK's tallest public building outside London