Campaigners are mobilising their support to save a library that has been axed in a controversial cost-cutting move.

Councillors on Tory-held East Sussex County Council this week decided to close Old Town Library in Victoria Drive, Eastbourne, to save £26,000.

The decision has been hotly contested and prompted a demonstration from more than 400 people.

Protesters said the library was a vital resource to the elderly and about 3,500 youngsters at nearby schools.

However, campaigners said the fight was not yet lost after councillor Maurice Skilton announced he was to present a motion at the full meeting of Eastbourne Borough Council next Wednesday.

It will ask the council to cover the annual cost of £26,000 to save the 50-year-old library, which would be run by the borough council.

Members of The Friends of Old Town Library are organising fund-raising events in an effort to meet the sum before it closes next month.

The motion also calls on Eastbourne's county council members to make every effort to secure the reinstatement of county council funding for the future.

Coun Skilton, former mayor and Lib Dem for Downside ward, said: "All is not lost. In fact, the fight has only just begun and I have hope that it will be successful.

"The support has been overwhelming."

Campaigners face a race against time if the library is to be preserved as its closure has been pencilled in for March 28.

The bid to save the library has won cross-party support on the borough council, even from members of the Tory party, who have been berated by some quarters for sanctioning the closure.

Graham Marsden, borough council leader, has written to Tory colleague Peter Jones, county council leader, saying the closure would be a "retrograde step".

He has also asked for a speedy response as to what the county council proposes to do with the library building.

Aubrey Vickers, Tory county councillor, said people wanting to use a library could travel to the Central Library in the town centre, within two miles of Old Town.

Residents in Old Town said having to travel into the town centre was impractical for many elderly and young people.

The borough council's full meeting will be held next Wednesday at the Town Hall, Grove Road, from 6pm.