Health chiefs voted unanimously to put the decision to transfer breast care services out of Brighton on hold.

The breast care service based at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, was given the temporary stay of execution at the joint board meeting of the West Sussex Health Authority and East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority yesterday.

The unanimous vote to delay the decision was made after West Sussex Health Authority received petitions launched by The Argus and the Friends of the Nigel Porter Unit for Breast Care, which contained 30,000 signatures opposing the proposal, and hundreds of letters of objection.

The board voted to allow further time for site and transport feasibility studies before seeking a view from the Health Secretary.

Stuart Welling, chief executive of the Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, also revealed at yesterday's meeting at Clair Hall, Haywards Heath, that the building at the Princess Royal Hospital it had hoped to move the Nigel Porter Unit unit into was not suitable following an architect's report.

A purpose-built unit would have to be built at a cost of up to £5 million and would not be built until October 2003.

Mr Welling said an architect had carried out a report which showed there were two options of creating a unit at the Royal Sussex site.

However, both would be extremely expensive and it had still not been established if they would be able to be created using current construction techniques.

The cost of developing a unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital now would be in excess of £12 million.

Brighton and Hove city councillor Jayne Bennett, who was at the meeting and had campaigned to keep the unit in Brighton, said: "It's thanks to everyone who signed the petition that the decision to move the Nigel Porter and breast assessment units from the Royal Sussex County Hospital was not made today.

"There is a still a long way to go before anyone can walk through the doors of a new unit with all the facilities promised for Haywards Heath located in Brighton, but at least it is the first step in the right direction."

Leonie Petrarca, who was also at the meeting and opposed the proposed transfer, said: "A fragmented service benefits no one and it is worrying that the breast unit could have vanished from Brighton without public knowledge or the access problems being addressed."

Jean Nehls, co-chairman of the Friends of the Nigel Porter Unit for Breast Care, was at the meeting and vowed: "The unit will not move out of Brighton."