Campaigners for a city farm in a deprived area have come out fighting despite funding and site setbacks which threatened to kill the project.

The East Brighton City Farm committee was on the verge of calling it a day last week after the budget was slashed from £337,000 to £100,000 and conservation groups opposed the scheme.

Cash-strapped regeneration body eb4U announced it could not afford the original grant allocation while Brighton Urban Wildlife Group and the Friends of Sheepcote Valley voiced concerns after seeing the plans.

The site earmarked for the farm was protected and environmentally-sensitive land in Sheepcote Valley and the groups were not happy with the scale of the development.

The city farm committee decided it would be difficult to obtain planning permission without their support.

Members held an emergency meeting and decided to persevere with the scheme despite the double blow.

They started looking for another site and are scaling-down the plans to meet the reduced budget.

Secretary Angie Airlie said: "We decided we have put so much work into this project over the last four or five years that we could not stop now despite our disappointment.

"Our dream was to create a city farm for to educate people in the Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb areas an we are not giving up on that."

Volunteers met with Brighton and Hove City Council officers yesterday to consider three alternative sites -two in Sheepcote Valley and one in East Brighton Park Mrs Airlie added: "Obviously we are re-evaluating the scope of the project due to our funding problems but it is possible we could look for other sources of funding and deliver our full-plans in a phased project over a longer period of time.

"The original site is still a possibility.

"We have always known that it is a designated site of nature conservation interest and our intention had always been to enhance the nature of the site with conservation and land management.

"The farm is a dream for many people and would be a brilliant facility in this area and our dream is very much alive."