Protesters waving placards voiced their opposition to two landmark buildings which are part of £400m regeneration plans for Hastings.

Forty people, the youngest aged three, turned out to peacefully oppose plans they say will blight the seafront.

They held placards featuring slogans including "No blot on the seashore", "Sure don't sell the seashore" and "Wot, no sea".

Their anger was focused on plans to build an office block and a hotel as part of a striking £400 million package of regeneration proposals to lift Hastings out of the doldrums.

Other plans drawn up by the Hastings and Bexhill Taskforce include a university at several sites in Hastings and building smart flats, shops and leisure facilities.

The plans have been feted as the most ambitious in Hastings' history.

Thousands of jobs are expected to be created over the next ten years and many more visitors lured into a once-struggling area beset by high violent crime and unemployment.

They were drawn up after the Government controversially rejected a multi-million-pound bypass scheme for the town, widely-seen as the antidote to Hastings' woes.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will hear about the plans on a visit tomorrow.

But resistance is mounting to the Pelham Plaza scheme which involves building an 80-bed, four-star hotel and a four-storey office block on the seafront near historic arts venue St Mary-in-the-Castle.

Old Town residents believe Hastings seafront will be scarred by the buildings and yesterday's demo was to highlight their opposition.

Members of the 100-strong Hastings Old Town Residents' Association plan more demos in a bid to force the plans to be scrapped.

They say the buildings would dwarf nearby landmarks like Italian Way and St Mary-in-the-Castle.

And they believe they would be a blot on Hastings' central seafront area. They marked out how big the buildings would be using ribbon.

Chairman Dick Edwards said: "We support 95 per cent of the regeneration plans. We want regeneration like everybody else in Hastings but just not these two particular buildings.

"They would block a view that has existed for years and years. And if they want buildings such as these why not look elsewhere and not on the seafront?

"If the decision-makers were to remove these two features from the plans they have drawn up, then they would get our 100 per cent support."