People with mental health problems face being banned from attending a care centre in Hove for more than two half-days a week.

The Allen Centre in Sackville Gardens may no longer be used as a drop-in base as part of a shake-up of mental health services.

Users of the centre, who rely on it as a daily lifeline, are campaigning against the South Downs Health NHS Trust's proposals.

They are hoping to raise enough cash to set up a new centre of their own.

The centre currently offers a range of courses on topics such as anger management, assertiveness and art therapy.

However, members are also able to use the day centre as a meeting-point.

Regulars say the social networks built up at the centre have saved many of them from suicide.

From January 31, clients are set to be put on a maximum of two group work programmes.

They would only be allowed to attend the centre for the morning or afternoon of each weekly session.

Support groups and courses would be spread across other mental health centres including those at Blatchington Road, Hove, and Preston Park, Brighton.

Staff at the Allen Centre would also no longer act as link workers or care co-ordinators for individuals.

The 70 members of the centre are virtually unanimous in opposing the changes and have written to the trust in protest.

Neil Doherty, 39, of Newick Road, Brighton, has suffered from clinical depression for many years.

He became a member of the centre last January but only felt comfortable attending regularly from May after a course on anxiety management.

He said: "Without the Allen Centre I think I would either be dead or hospitalised.

"If I'm forced to go to one place for support groups, another for counselling and somewhere else for social contact, I know in myself it would be too much.

"Ninety per cent of the support we receive isn't from the staff but from each other. If someone is suicidal or depressed, we make sure that person isn't going to be on their own.

"Plus, they are taking our link workers. I can't always get to see my community psychiatric nurse but there is always someone available at the Allen Centre. Not any more."

Max Leslie, 56, a long-term sufferer of paranoid schizophrenia and Crohn's Disease, said: "We would like to get funding to set up our own premises.

"There is a definite community spirit at the Allen Centre and a genuine therapeutic love, which we don't want to lose."

Earlier this month, The Argus revealed how attendance at the centre had dropped by half since a £14 weekly charge was introduced.

A final decision on the proposals is due to be made on October 10.

James Watson, 45, of Rugby Road, Brighton, said: "We're going to ask for a stay of execution for 12 months at least. We've been given no time to co-ordinate ourselves."