Campaigners fighting for a new hospital in Mid Sussex are planning a protest march following a decision by health chiefs to block the proposal.

Members of the Crawley Hospital Campaign and Crawley Labour Party are calling on people to march on Saturday, February 22.

The appeal follows the unanimous decision yesterday by the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority board to reject proposals for a multi-million-pound hospital at Pease Pottage, near Crawley.

The board instead backed a second option, to turn East Surrey Hospital in Redhill into the main hospital for north Sussex and south-east Surrey while developing some services at Crawley Hospital.

The main reason was financial. Health bosses said the cost of developing the Pease Pottage hospital would be between £183 million and £259 million while the other plan would cost between £56 million and £85 million.

Board chief executive Simon Robbins said the four Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) for the area had expressed concerns about the financial viability of the proposal.

He said: "PCTs hold 75 per cent of the NHS budget. We support the service model proposed by the PCT boards, which will mean the development of primary, community, intermediate and local acute services on the Crawley and Horsham hospital sites."

Yesterday's news has left those who have fought for years for a state-of-the-art hospital in Crawley bitterly disappointed.

They say Crawley, which has a population of 95,000, is expanding and needs a hospital able to cope with the demand.

Pensioner Harry Isherwood, of the Crawley Hospital Campaign, said: "I've been to all the meetings over four years and heard all the waffle. It strikes me there is too much about financial concerns and not enough about patients."

Crawley Borough Council leader Chris Redmayne said it was a bittersweet decision.

He said: "We are obviously disappointed but if they are talking about improving services at Crawley - bringing back acute services and a maternity ward - then it's a step in the right direction."

Crawley Labour Party chairman Robert Hull said: "We do not believe the revised option will deliver to Crawley residents the level of service that a borough of this size should have."

He said a formal objection had been lodged.

Mr Hull and other campaigners travelled to Westminster on Tuesday to lobby Crawley MP Laura Moffatt and a health minister.

Mrs Moffatt said: "I shall continue to press for the very best services for the people of Crawley and I do not believe that these recommendations represent that.

"I am making it clear now that I shall be fighting this to the end and this isn't the end."

The march starts at 11am from Crawley Labour Supporters' Club in Ifield Avenue, West Green.