More than 500 people have signed a petition objecting to multi-million-pound plans for the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove.

Two bidders are competing to rebuild the prime seafront site and erect more than 400 flats on the same site.

The petition was presented to Brighton and Hove Mayor David Watkins by Liberal Democrat councillor Jenny Barnard-Langston.

They object to skyscrapers in both schemes, which they say will block sea views and be out of character with the area.

Coun Barnard-Langston said: "The council is determined to press ahead with the overdevelopment of the King Alfred regardless of public opinion.

"The exhibition held for the public to express a view was not widely publicised and did not offer an opportunity to register objections to the scheme.

"Residents are in favour of the site being used for leisure and are not in principle against housing. What they do object to is the mass and scale of the proposals."

Only two bidders were left in the contest after Brighton and Hove City Council dropped Countryside Properties from the leisure centre scheme.

The announcement was made on Thursday at a city council meeting by leader Ken Bodfish.

Now the battle is between Karis/ING and Barratt/Brunswick, which have each prepared radically different proposals for the site.

Karis/ING has enlisted leading architects headed by Frank Gehry and Piers Gough to produce four jagged towers, up to 38 storeys, with the sports centre on one level.

Barratt/Brunswick had designs prepared by the Wilkinson Eyre partnership, which envisaged three tall blocks of flats and the leisure centre in a fourth building with a nautical feel about it.