THIS WEEK IN 2000: New tower shock as developer is dumped

In the latest humiliation of a tortuous saga council chiefs decided enough was enough and ditched the European consortium hoping to build it.

The company, Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower Ltd, was dropped after months of prevarication in which no contracts were signed to build or operate the 5ooft-high structure at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour.

PST failed to meet a Christmas Eve deadline to sign contracts. Instead it submitted revised plans for developing the £23m tower in the shape of a spinnaker sail.

But the dithering forced the council to act to try to ensure the structure was built by its self-imposed deadline of August 2001.