The badgers of Saltdean are safe from slaughter for now. As with any animal story, emotions run high and there are two sides to the tale.

If you are fortunate enough to have a badger visit your home in the dead of night, they can be a delight to watch as they snuffle around the garden.

They are extremely shy and are considered cute in many people's minds. They are also a species protected by law.

But they can be a nuisance. Badgers burrow under patios, dig up bulbs, wreck lawns and extend their underground tunnels close to people's homes.

Some believe they carry tuberculosis, which can spread to cattle.

The Downs and the rural surrounds of Saltdean have been a home to badgers for generations.

However, as Brighton and Hove developed from a popular Victorian seaside resort into one of the country's newest cities, so did the demand on space to build homes.

Towns such as Peacehaven, Newhaven and Saltdean sprang up along the coastal line as people vied, and continue to vie, for land to build homes.

A great deal of the development in Saltdean went ahead in the early Seventies before the Badger Act of 1973, which offered protection to the animals and their homes.

Many people in the town remember a badger sett existed opposite, what is now, Saxon Close in the grounds of a house called Wingate.

That house was demolished and flats erected. The creation of Saxon Close followed and the badgers home was disrupted.

Badger experts say the animals then moved into fox holes in the gardens of the homes which were built on the estate and it is from here that the dispute between the animals and humans gained momentum as the urban sprawl crept further into what had been their habitat.

In 1988, residents were granted a licence by the then Ministry of Fisheries, Food and Agriculture (Maff) to close the setts by exclusion, involving gates and electric fencing.

The aim was to prevent the animals re-entering their sett once they had left.

What happened after these initial measures were put into place is proving the bone of contention for animal lovers who were protesting last week, when the Government issued a licence allowing the badgers to be shot - the first licence of its kind since 1996.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the residents whose homes were being wrecked by the badgers said efforts had been made to solve the problem but had failed.

One property has a sett entrance under a shed and another may have tunnels under an integral garage.

Last Wednesday, we revealed that after 14 years of the animals invading gardens and wrecking them, four residents had applied to Defra for a licence to have the animals shot.

Dr Elaine King, chief executive of the National Federation of Badger Groups, said alternatives had not been given full consideration and the licence should not have been issued.

She said: "Exclusion of the badgers was ruled out on the basis that it had already been tried and had failed - but that was 14 year ago.

"We are given to understand that the exclusion failed because no steps were taken to prevent the badgers returning to their burrows. We do not believe this option was fully explored."

The divide between the badger-loving neighbours and those who wanted them out was created and protestors gathered in the streets from last Wednesday night.

Brighton and Hove City Council was unaware the licence had been issued and other local animal groups claimed they had not been approached to work on a humane way of resolving the problem.

Traps were set and two badgers caught and shot. People from Saltdean were outraged and the protest swelled.

During the weekend more than 300 people joined the mounting protest.

After a day of talks between senior police officers in Brighton and Defra representatives on Monday, the licence was suspended indefinitely.

Work has now begun to find a solution which will please the whole community and bring harmony back to the tranquil community.

Des Turner, Labour MP for Kemp Town, Brighton, said of the licence suspension: "This move gives the badger groups a further opportunity to make representations and, in particular, to suggest further alternative sites for possible relocation of the badgers."

"But the serious structural problems in at least one house and the imminence of the badger breeding season mean the problem is still very urgent."