Conservationists have described designs for a proposed supermarket, hotels and homes next to Brighton station as "a disaster".

The Conservation Areas Advisory Group, which met yesterday, will give its opinion to Brighton and Hove City Council.

Next month the planning committee will hold a special meeting to discuss plans by the New England Consortium for the run-down site.

The scheme includes a superstore, two hotels, hundreds of homes, a language business headquarters, workshops and a link to the station.

Selma Montford, who chairs the group, said: "It is more terrible even than we had imagined."

She said a landmark building at the northern end of the site would obscure fine views of St Bartholomew's Church while the view up Ann Street was poor. She described the route to the station as "an unwelcome and uninviting gully".

She said a drawing of one of the houses proposed could have been produced by a child and had poor proportions.

Mrs Montford said: "It would be a disaster for Brighton and Hove if this scheme was given planning permission."

Chris Gilbert, spokesman for project managers QED, said: "Architecture is a subjective matter. A major part of the scheme is still outline and no details have yet been submitted."

A model of the proposed development can be seen at the council's environmental services information and advice centre, Bartholomew House, Brighton, today and tomorrow from 9am to 4.30pm.

The model will then be at Hove Town Hall, from Tuesday to Friday, February 15, from 9am to 5pm.