Dozens of people fighting plans for a park-and-ride scheme picketed a town hall with banners and chanted protest slogans.

Actor Chris Ellison joined the protesters who had gathered outside Brighton Town Hall yesterday afternoon to hand over two petitions containing more than 7,000 signatures opposing plans to build the scheme in Patcham, Brighton.

Campaigners, many of them with dogs from the RSPCA kennels at Patcham which could be affected by the plan, chanted "No Park and Ride at Patcham" as councillors arrived for the full council meeting.

Two petitions were presented to the council, one from supporters of the RSPCA kennels at Braypool Lane, Patcham, and the other from people who signed the petition collected by members of Patcham Against Insensitive Destructive Development (PAIDD).

The PAIDD petition contains 2,074 signatures while the RSPCA petition contains 5,300 signatures.

Two sites have been identified in Patcham has possible locations for a 900-car park-and-ride site, one of which is at Court Farm, the other on playing fields near the RSPCA kennels. Although the kennels would remain, protesters say the loss of land would affect the dog walkers.

The Court Farm proposal would see the loss of six family homes and allotments which have been used since the Second World War while the other site is used for recreation.

Mr Ellison, a Hove resident, famous for his portrayal of DI Frank Burnside in ITV's The Bill, said: "I go dog walking at the RSPCA and I'm quite a familiar figure there. This is yet another case of people riding roughshod over what the public want.

"Tony Blair is banging on about playing fields and they want to build a car park over it."

The X Factor's Simon Cowell whose mother Julie, 80, from Ovingdean, supports the RSPCA centre, is another celebrity who has opposed the plan.

Protesters claim the scheme, being put forward as a solution to Brighton's parking problems, would mean the death of large swathes of wildlife.

Brighton and Hove city councillor Geoffrey Theobald, who represents Patcham, accepted the petitions to present to the city mayor Bob Carden at the council meeting.

Coun Theobald said: "I have been a councillor since 1968 representing Brighton and I find it difficult to recall a petition as large as this sent by Brighton residents against a proposal in Brighton.

"Most petitions which are handed over are about 50 to 100 names. This is 5,200 people who do not want two very beautiful areas concreted over."

Coun Brian Pidgeon said: "We will fight this. Braypool has six playing fields and according to Mr Blair we are short of playing fields.

"This plan will put Patcham under concrete."

Coun Peter Willows also offered support to protesters. He said: "If Patcham is concreted over, we will never get these playing fields back."

Sharon Raby, who lives in one of the cottages which may be demolished, said: "This is the only home my son remembers. We have lived there for 11 years and he is 17 now.

"Not knowing what is going to happen is making the tenants ill. We are a small, close-knit community and when we discovered the plans we were shocked."

RSPCA volunteer Claire Charlesworth, who adopted her Rottweiler-basset hound Bentley from the kennels, said: "I used the park-and-ride at Withdean but I don't think it should be put in Patcham. The road at Patcham is not a good stretch of road - there are already flowers there where there has been a fatality."

A spokesman for the council said: "We would be looking to replace any lost leisure facilities.

"I would also make the point that realistically we are fairly limited for choice of locations because it makes sense to have the park-and-ride somewhere near the intersection of those two main roads, the A23 and the A27.

"Nothing has been decided and we will go on listening to people's opinions on the issue."

The park-and-ride scheme was not on the agenda for yesterday's meeting but may be discussed by the policy and resources committee in December.