The Brighton Wheel's return to Madeira Drive goes to Cabinet on 17 September: a 25-year lease, then planning permission, and rides by summer 2027 if approved.
A big wheel could be back on Madeira Drive by the summer of 2027. Brighton & Hove City Council is putting a 25-year lease for the site to its Cabinet on 17 September. The last wheel came down a decade ago (Brighton & Hove City Council, 18 August 2026).
The proposal is for the wheel’s original site on Madeira Drive, on the eastern seafront. The operator would be the family business behind the Brighton Zip. It already runs the zip wire, a café and Daltons Bar and Cabaret, a grassroots music venue in the building below the café.
What is actually being decided
The 17 September decision is about the lease, not the wheel itself. The sequence, as the council sets it out:
- Cabinet decides on a 25-year lease of the Madeira Drive site to the operator
- If approved, the operator applies for planning permission. No application has been made yet
- The stated target is to have the wheel running by next summer, meaning summer 2027
Under the lease terms described by the council, the operator “would be fully responsible for all operational costs, staffing, maintenance, business performance and day-to-day trading activity”, and the council would take “a guaranteed commercial rent for the duration of the lease”. The council has not published the rent figure, the height of the proposed wheel or where the wheel itself would come from.
The operator
The council’s release names Jeffrey Sanders as the owner and operator and Delso Da Silva as general manager. It says the team behind the Brighton Zip has more than 15 years of experience managing attractions on the seafront and has invested over £1.3 million on the site. That figure covers the zip wire, work to strengthen the building’s base so it could support the previous wheel, and contributions to other improvements along Madeira Drive.
Sanders said: “We believe the Brighton Wheel can once again become a much-loved part of Brighton’s seafront, bringing families and visitors to Madeira Drive, supporting neighbouring businesses and complementing the fantastic attractions already here.” Da Silva said the company was “over the moon at the prospect”.
Councillor David McGregor, cabinet member for economy, culture, heritage and tourism, put it in the context of the wider seafront work: “Bringing the Wheel back isn’t about looking backwards. It’s about taking something people loved and making it part of the next phase of our seafront, as we regenerate Madeira Drive and bring new energy to the east of the city.”
Why the last one went
The original wheel was installed in 2011. Its lease ended in 2016, in the council’s words, “to make way for the development of the i360 given the green light by a previous administration”. That is the council’s account, and it is a pointed one. The i360 opened on the seafront in 2016. The administration that agreed those terms is not the one now proposing the wheel’s return.
What it means for you
- Nothing is approved. A lease decision on 17 September is one step, and a planning application, with its own public consultation, would follow.
- The Cabinet meeting is public. It is at 10.30am on Thursday 17 September in the Council Chamber at Hove Town Hall, and the agenda is normally published in the week beforehand (meeting page).
- If you want a say on the wheel itself, the moment is the planning application, not the lease. Applications for the city are searchable on the council’s register, and our Brighton planning applications page explains how to comment and by when.
- If you are heading to that end of the seafront, Madeira Drive is already the venue for much of the city’s events calendar. Our things to do in Brighton page covers what is open along the front now.
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