Campaigners have produced their own picture to illustrate how Frank Gehry's £290 million towers would ruin Hove's seafront.

They claim the public has been misled by the image produced by developer Karis, which they believe shows the proposed King Alfred development in an unrealistically flattering light.

They say their picture, prepared by architecture expert and former university lecturer Professor Geoffrey Baker, gives a more accurate impression of the plans and shows how the development would "impact horribly on the environment visually".

Karis last night questioned the accuracy of the new picture and dismissed it as "complete and utter rubbish".

The company is seeking consent for a new public sports centre, 754 flats units in two towers and eight other buildings, shops, restaurants, cafs, bars, a doctors' surgery and basement parking on the site of the King Alfred Centre in Hove.

The application will be considered by members of Brighton and Hove City Council's planning committee next spring.

Karis' picture, an image of a scale model, shows a view of the tallest of Gehry's two crumpled skyscrapers and a cluster of ten-storey apartment blocks in Kingsway from the road of St Aubyns.

Prof Baker, who belongs to the campaign group Save Hove, is the author of five books on architecture.

He trained as an architect at the University of Manchester and has served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of South Carolina at Charlotte, USA.

He has written numerous articles and lectured throughout the world. He has also taught at the Open University and the universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Brighton.

He said the image suggested Gehry's brightly-coloured blocks would be no taller than the street's existing four-storey houses.

There is no suggestion that Karis has doctored its picture but it is accused of taking the photograph from an angle which fails to give the public a proper sense of what it would be like to live next to the building.

Prof Baker, who has lived in Hove for 11 years, said: "If you put a camera down looking along St Aubyns you can make the houses look exactly the same height as the new proposed blocks.

"It has a falsifying effect by making the buildings in Kingsway look smaller than they actually are."

The professor has produced his own image, a combination of a photograph and his own drawing, which he says more accurately represents the potential impact of the development.

But Karis last night rubbished the picture. Chairman Josh Arghiros said: "Anybody with a computer can cobble up an image. What Save Hove has done is to produce an image that is completely inaccurate in perspective, dimension and is neither a verified view nor visually accurate.

"It is unscientific and based on an objector's opportunistic attempt to scaremonger and upset the local community.

"We reject this image for what it is - complete and utter rubbish. Ignore it."

Members of the public can view the scale model of the development for themselves at Hove Town Hall from today.

Brighton and Hove City Council's planning committee is due to consider Karis' planning application next year.