New Brighton residents claim they are paying a high price in terms of noise and disturbance for the resort’s multi-million pound regeneration.

A major revamp of the coastal strip is on course for completion later this year and the new Floral Pavilion theatre has proved an outstanding success since its opening a couple of years ago.

Now developers Neptune are seeking planning approval for a complex of 24 apartments with stunning sea views to be built next to the theatre on Marine Promenade.

People living at the rear of the development in Victoria Parade, however, are far from happy at the prospect.

They claim that roads around the theatre are already being used by theatre-goers causing parking problems for local residents.

Cars already park all over the town square at the bottom of Victoria Road and double yellow lines prove to be no detriment.

They claim further that if the apartments are built it would mean considerably increased traffic and noise pollution day and night to add to theatre traffic.

The objections are lodged with Wirral planning authority and will be studied by the planning committee on Thursday night.

Planners have recommended approval for the scheme, which has been amended from an earlier application which included restaurants, bars and cafes on the ground floor.

Councillor Lesley Rennie, Wirral Council cabinet member for streetscene and transport services, said she and council colleagues had always nursed concerns about the volume of traffic New Brighton’s revival would generate.

She said: “Although we always supported the Neptune project we were sceptical about the traffic impact study.

"We were concerned about the traffic coming into the resort and some of the fears expressed by residents indicate that congestion could already be happening.”

Councillor Rennie said she had not received any complaints directly from residents but she was prepared to set up a meeting with them and local authority engineers to investigate the situation.

Neptune has determined that the market would not support the original scheme and the revised development is on a smaller scale with fewer but larger apartments.

Although the New Brighton Partnership supports the new plans, a 308-name petition, opposing the scheme has been submitted by Resort, the business association for New Brighton.

A further petition of 26 names has been lodged by Wirral Civic Society.

A Resort spokesman said they would continue to press the council to reject the present scheme.