The Mace redevelopment was expected to cost £23m

Developers Mace recently pulled out of a £23m plan to renovate the Tropicana in Weston-super-Mare, which has been derelict since it was closed in 2000.

But North Somerset Council is now considering remarketing the building to developers, as well as other options.

These include refurbishing the site and building an outdoor pool at a cost of £2.7m, and developing a covered pool.

The council is also looking at demolishing the Tropicana to beach level, but a spokesman said it was keeping all options open.

'Digging heels in'

Lib Dem councillor John Crockford-Hawley, whose motion to have a covered pool as the preferred option was defeated on Tuesday, told the BBC: "It has gone past a joke and is a classical farce now.

"Members are digging their heels in - they don't want to face up to the problem."

Mace had wanted to build a hotel, leisure complex, multi-screen cinema and restaurants on the seafront site.

A report to the council on the site is expected no later than next June.

There has been a pool on the seafront at Weston since the 1930s, but declining visitor numbers in the 1990s saw the council vote to close it.