Opponents of a supermarket planned as part of a town centre redevelopment say almost everyone they asked about the store is against it.

BUDD, Brighton Urban Design and Development, has released its report on the borough council's draft planning brief for land next to the main railway station.

It includes the supermarket as part of other uses for the sites including housing, a hotel, open space and room for new jobs to be created.

BUDD is presenting the report, together with 800 letters, and says 98 per cent of the respondents are against the supermarket.

The group wanted to present the report and letters to council leader Lynette Gwyn-Jones but she has refused to accept it.

She said: "BUDD representatives clearly have one point of view and I can accept that.

"What I cannot accept is their blinkered attempt to misrepresent the draft planning brief to local people. They have distorted it by focusing on a single issue, the food supermarket, which represents only a fraction of the site area."

Ben Messer from BUDD said local people were upset and angry that their views were being belittled by the council.

He added: "Time after time, it has been made clear that the commercial interest of developers outweigh the aspirations and needs of local people."

Mr Messer said if the council wanted to regenerate the London Road shopping area, it should put any new store on the London Road, not 200 metres away and up a steep hill.