Councillors were given the blunt choice at their Town Hall meeting, when informed the project had gone over budget.

Members agreed to the extra money to leave a new contingency fund in order to meet the additional unexpected costs of cladding from the earmarked reserves.

The matter was taken as an urgent decision by councillors.

Cabinet had previously been told the original stainless steel cladding was likely to cost too much and an affordable alternative had to be sought.

That proved difficult, with large sums still required to install the agreed upon replacement material of aluminium.

Officers warned if the project is not completed as intended Heritage Lottery funding cannot be claimed.

Cllr Deirdre Williams said: "We really don't have much choice do we? If we don't (make extra funds available) the whole thing will fall."

Cllr Brian Kentfield warned officers to seek guarantees on the length of time the aluminium would last given its proximity to the seafront.

He said in his previous experience aluminium can start breaking down in "five to seven years."

Both head of services Tony Leonard and head of amenities Madeleine Gorman, pledged to get long term guarantees, but if the cost was to increase further they may come back to cabinet seeking permission to go back to the original plan of steel cladding.

Rother leader Cllr Carl Maynard said members would delegate the technical issues surrounding the aluminium to be examined by officers.

Mr Leonard said: "The report is before you because we are using the whole of the contingency. We will go back to the aluminium and if that is found to be a problem we will go back to stainless steel.

"If that's the case we will go back to the contingency and bring it back to cabinet."