The use of St Catherine's Lodge Hotel to provide temporary accommodation for homeless families has sparked controversy but facts have been in short supply.

A total of 51 families is being housed. All these families are formally designated homeless.

They must be housed temporarily by Brighton and Hove City Council as part of its legal obligation to tackle homelessness.

All the homeless families in St Catherine's are local. On average a family is housed in this kind of temporary accommodation for 43 days before being moved to permanent housing.

This will usually be sooner where children are involved.

A number of management arrangements have been put in place by the company now running the hotel.

These include a 24-hour reception service to ensure the hotel is supervised at all times, three live-in staff, four cleaners and a three-times-a-week rubbish collection service.

The management of the hotel is looking to employ another person who will help ensure the area around the hotel is kept clean.

New smoke and fire alarms have been fitted in every room and a Fire Certificate has been issued.

Brighton and Hove has a significant homelessness problem. Criticism of the use of St Catherine's Lodge Hotel as temporary housing is partly due to the lack of information provided to the local community about the way it is being used and managed.

But, in some cases, we think some of the criticism is the result of prejudice and discrimination towards people who are homeless and vulnerable. This is not a viewpoint we are prepared to support.

-Coun Simon Battle, Betty Walshe and Frieda Warman-Brown, Vallance ward councillors, Hove Town Hall