Campaigners objecting to the use of a hotel to house asylum-seekers left for Downing Street today.

They went armed with two boxes of signatures supporting their cause.

Home Office plans to use the Grand Ocean Hotel in Saltdean to accommodate refugees have caused controversy since they were announced last year.

The 1,600-name list represents one for every other property in Saltdean, according to councillor Lynda Hyde who is supporting the residents' petition.

She said: "There are 598 beds in the hotel and if they are all filled with asylum-seekers, the local infrastructure won't be able to cope.

"It is a quite residential area and there are few facilities here for such a large number of people.

"I would like them placed in secure units away from everyone else."

However, other residents have supported a campaign to welcome asylum-seekers.

A group of 19 campaigners gathered at Brighton Kemp Town MP Des Turner's advice surgery last week calling on him to make a stand against the "racist hysteria" surrounding asylum-seekers.

Raf Salkie, of the Committee to Defend Asylum-Seekers, said large, seaside hotels were an obvious place to run induction courses for asylum-seekers.