The seaside pier, so often associated with cold and windswept days at the seaside, could be set for a revival.

Plans to build Britain's first new pier for more than a century are being developed in Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire.

A businessman wants to erect the �20m structure at the seaside town, near Blackpool.

The indoor entertainment area could create about 1,000 new jobs.

Normally you have to go and stand outside and get cold but this is an indoor attraction

Paul Taylor

The Island project is the brainchild of Paul Taylor, managing director of the town's Pleasure Island tourist attraction.

He said the new pier would be different to its Victorian predecessors.

He said: "It's going to be something new - nobody has built a pier for over 100 years and what we are going to do is something that is indoors.

"Normally you have to go and stand outside and get cold but this is an indoor attraction."

He added: "Bearing in mind what Blackpool is planning on doing, which is putting in casinos, we have got to put something in that's equally attractive but brings people to St Anne's all year round."

The first phase of the development, a bar and restaurant complex, opens next month.

Plans for the pier have yet to receive planning permission.