The fight to find grants to save a city community centre has taken a new direction.

Opposition councillors have given up on hopes of persuading Brighton and Hove City Council's leadership to rethink its refusal to support the Crew Club in Whitehawk through three-year discretionary grants.

Instead they have called on the council to find other funding streams to help the centre, whose management have warned they could otherwise face closure.

The council's cabinet decided last month to reject a £25,000 grant bid from the Crew Club to help with its running costs.

It was one of only six bidders from a list of more than 70 applicants to be turned down as grants totalling more than £1 million were agreed earlier this month.

Councillor Gill Mitchell, who represents the Whitehawk area, initially asked for a review of the decision but at a meeting of the council's overview and scrutiny commission she and other members agreed that would be counter-productive.

They had been told it would stall payments of grants to 68 successful applicant charities, whose work would suffer as a result.

After the meeting Coun Mitchell said: "What we agreed instead was to call on the council, as a matter of urgency, to work with the Crew Club to assist them to find other funds.

"This club simply must not close."

She said the club may be able to secure money from the council's separate annual grants scheme or its Children and Young People's Trust.

The Crew Club has been considered a vital part of the Whitehawk community since it was set up following the stabbing of teenager Jay Kensett in 1999 and has been praised for its role in reducing crime.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: “The Crew Club is an immediate priority for annual grant aid support from the council and we will be exploring other avenues of funding with the trustees.”