The father of a severely mentally-handicapped boy has called for the resignation of social care councillors and officials.

The Saltdean man rejected an invitation by Brighton and Hove City Council to give evidence to an inquiry into what went wrong with the Palmeira House project.

The house, for children with severe learning difficulties, was due to close after a row between the council and NCH Action for Children about rising costs.

After the parents went to the High Court, a decision was reached last year that the project should continue until the children became adult.

The father, who made a submission to the High Court, said he and his wife did not intend to repeat their account merely to satisfy a council inquiry and said: "Frankly, we consider we have suffered enough."

In a letter to the council, he wrote: "For you, it is simply a matter of retrieving information.

"For us, it is a further encroachment on valuable time spent coping with a desperately difficult situation at home."

He said he felt some officials and leading councillors had not paid enough attention to what parents were saying and ought to consider resigning.

He said: "I bristled and was nauseated when one woman councillor, speaking from a position of relative comfort and without an inkling of the emotional trauma we suffer daily in our lives, pontificated about what was good for, or in the best interests of, our family, or words to that effect.

"Such ill-chosen words and phrases are unacceptable. They will forever remain etched on my memory."

His letter will be put before a scrutiny panel considering Palmeira House as part of its evidence.