The battle lines have been drawn up in a campaign to save a care home for the elderly.

Brighton and Hove City Council is considering closing or privatising the residential wing of Knoll House, in Ingram Crescent, Hove, following estimates it will cost up to £2 million to bring it up to tough new guidelines due to be introduced in 2007.

But the scheme, which has been put out to public consultation, has attracted fierce opposition from care workers and locals who attended a meeting at St Philip's Church last night.

They have just two months to overturn the scheme before it goes before councillors in October.

They have started gathering petitions, writing to councillors and lobbying MPs.

Ian Long, the council's assistant social care director, told the meeting six of the 30-year-old home's 22 rooms were too small to be used full-time under existing legislation. He said that alone would cost £80,000 to put right.

But he said 17 would not meet the new criteria, which include on-street parking, telephones and en suite bathrooms, when they are introduced.

Those at the meeting heard that hundreds of beds had been lost through the closure of 50 council-owned and private care homes during the past four years.

Andy Richards, chairman of the city's branch of public sector union Unison, said: "There is a growing crisis in care across the country.

"How can this authority say it can't afford £80,000 when it is spending upwards of £100,000 on recruiting a new chief executive?"

Labour councillor Pat Murphy said: "We can't afford to lose 22 beds in the public sector when the private sector is in meltdown. Where will these people go?"

Sue Ward, of neighbouring Sanders House, said: "What does it matter if the room is 6in too small and doesn't have an en suite shower? That's no reason to close it down."

Coun Ann Norman, Conservative social care spokeswoman, said: "This legislation is leading to the closure of private homes. Should this closure go through we will be in serious difficulty."