A rail boss been warned closing ticket offices early could lead to a rise in crime.

Hastings Borough Council leader Jeremy Birch has written to South Eastern Trains managing director Michael Holden urging a rethink.

The rail company, which operates in parts of East Sussex, is planning to cut some ticket office opening hours or close them altogether.

The office at Hastings, which is usually open until 11.30pm, would close at 8pm on weekdays, 7pm on Saturdays and 6pm on Sundays.

There would also be new hours for stations in Battle, St Leonards Warrior Square and Robertsbridge, with many ticket offices closing in the early afternoon.

Coun Birch said a closed ticket office could lead to yobs congregating at the station in the evening.

He said: "I wrote directly to Mr Holden because I think the train operating company's plans are the wrong idea at the wrong time.

"I explained that a number of initiatives are under way to regenerate and revitalise Hastings and improvements to the transport infrastructure are a huge factor in this.

"Our concern is that a closed ticket office will give out all the wrong signals, making the station a less welcoming place in the evening.

"Hastings has trains on three different routes and a staffed presence is reassuring, especially when the platform indicators are not working.

"I made the point that a particular focus of our attention is the town centre's evening economy.

"A number of initiatives are currently being implemented to improve this.

"To close the ticket office at 7pm would fly in the face of what we are trying to achieve.

"Indeed, to de-staff the 'front of house' so early could well lead to groups of individuals collecting there, so acting as a deterrent to people, particularly vulnerable people, from travelling.

"I believe it may even add to the fear of crime, which we are working successfully to reduce in Hastings.

"I concluded by saying that we consider the proposal to close the ticket office at 7pm to be ill-advised and urged Mr Holden to keep the existing opening hours of the ticket office here in Hastings."

The plan has also been slammed by union officials who are balloting on industrial action.

The union said it was confident of a "yes" vote in protest at plans to cut up to 100 jobs and added it had the backing of the public who did not want to see cutbacks among ticket office staff.

A South Eastern Trains spokesman said there would be no job losses.

He said staff affected by the proposed changes will be redeployed to other positions during quieter times.

He said new vending machines would still allow passengers to buy a full range of tickets but would enable the redeployment of 99 ticket office workers to "customer-facing positions".

He said another 29 people were also being taken on, meaning a total of 128 staff would be providing assistance to passengers on trains and platforms.

South Eastern Trains runs services on the former Connex South Eastern franchise from London to Kent and parts of East Sussex.