Councillors are fighting to have "forgotten" fields near the Sussex Downs included in the proposed national park.

For more than a year, Worthing residents have campaigned to stop developers building on land at the back of Beeches Avenue, near the A27, Broadwater, Worthing.

Worthing Borough Council had proposed the site should be included in the planned South Downs national park boundary.

This would help protect it from being developed.

Worthing's executive agreed at a meeting on Monday that it would recommend the land be included, even though the Countryside Agency has already decided the area does not fit national park criteria.

Council leader Sheila Player said: "The council and the opposition support this. We must represent the views of our residents."