Writer Julie Burchill is backing a campaign opposing the bid to make Brighton and Hove the European City of Culture.

The newspaper columnist, with a reputation for speaking her mind, has made a £500 donation to the Trades Council and the Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers' Centre.

Hove-based Ms Burchill said: "If Brighton continues the way it is going, we will wake in the year 2020 to find there is no one to teach our children, no one to tend to our sick and no one to clean our streets.

"But hey, there will be 2,020 places to buy latte, so let's not be negative."

Unemployed Centre secretary Tony Greenstein said the bid was aimed at an elite few rather than the majority of people.

He said: "Julie has been very supportive and it is great because she is fairly outspoken and doesn't think twice about saying what many people are thinking. We did our first stall in town recently and we didn't actually meet anybody who supported the bid.

"The general attitude was, why does the council keep doing things like ninelives and Place to Be when the big issues that affect people don't seem to be on the horizon?

"I think they might get a shock come the elections because I detect a giant swell of dissatisfaction. It is obvious things like, why are you putting a big supermarket up on a site when people can't get a house to live in?

"We didn't ask Julie for a donation, she came forward and offered it and we gratefully accepted."

Writer and broadcaster Simon Fanshawe, a leading campaigner for the City of Culture bid, described Julie's actions as selfish.

He said: "Her argument is fatuous and what it doesn't do is look at how we build the economy of Brighton and Hove. This bid is about bringing jobs to the city. It will benefit everyone in the city and will bring jobs for electricians as well as performers.

"When you're as rich as Julie Burchill it is easy to come out with statements like this. But I think she should be giving a much larger proportion of her income than this if she really feels as strongly about it as she says she does.

"Frankly, I just think it's a terribly selfish thing to knock this bid when people are trying to boost the economy of the city."

A public meeting for those opposed to the bid will be held at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road on Wednesday, at 7.30pm.

Julie Burchill was asked to be one of the speakers at the event but was unable to attend because of prior filming commitments.