MULTI-million-pound plans to revive Boscombe's seafront could be sunk because the government wants to make four run-down kiosks into a listed building.

Heritage minister Andrew McIntosh announced on Monday that he wanted to list the pier neck building, citing the "flair" and "vivacity" of its architecture.

The decision has been denounced as "crazy" by the deputy leader of Bournemouth council, which is spearheading plans to put a new leisure complex on the site.

The new building - including family attractions, a restaurant and shops - was to have been part of a £9 million leisure package paid for by allowing Barratt to build 169 seafront homes at Honeycombe Chine.

But Mr McIntosh yesterday hailed the existing building, dating from 1958-60, as architecturally important.

He said: "The neck building at Boscombe Pier is a rarity among municipal entertainment structures of the period. It was designed with real conviction and flair.

"The vivacity of this structure clearly illustrates the revitalisation of the British seaside resort in the 1950s."

There will be a two-week public consultation before a final decision is made.

The row echoes the decision in 1999 to grant listed status to a bus shed at Yellow Buses' depot in Mallard Road, which delayed plans for a shopping centre.

Cllr Richard Smith, Liberal Democrat deputy leader of Bournemouth Borough Council, said: "It's another case of a stupid listing like the garage shed at Mallard Road. It limits the potential development that can happen there.

"There's us trying to regenerate Boscombe, which the government is saying falls in the list of most deprived wards in the country, and then another branch of government seems to willy-nilly go ahead and put an inappropriate listing on the building, whose sole purpose is to thwart the regeneration process that's under way."

Cllr Ken Mantock, chairman of the council's planning board, said: "I feel it's difficult to believe even the most myopic and prejudiced people who love 20th century architecture would see anything of special architectural interest in it."

It is not known who drew the pier neck building to the government's attention.

Roger Brown, the borough's head of leisure services, said the possibility of listing had already delayed the seafront project.

Labour councillor Ben Grower, who lives near the site, said: "I'm not absolutely surprised at the government.

"If they're capable of listing a cow shed at the bus station, they can certainly list the neck of a pier."

But he added: "Anything that will hinder this horrendous development is welcomed wholeheartedly."

Parry Brooks, chairman of Boscombe Cliffs Residents Association, said: "Personally I think it doesn't have too much architectural merit, although I can see where they're coming from."

He said he was concerned about the council's scheme but did not want to see the re-development scuppered.

The public has until October 24 to write to Elaine Pearce, Historic Environment Designation Branch, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5DH.