Veterans who wanted signs put on a war memorial urging foreigners to respect the dead have been told their plan could be offensive.

They want signs in French, Spanish, Italian and German telling tourists that Brighton War Memorial, at the Old Steine, is a monument to honour their fallen comrades and not a picnic spot.

But officers at Brighton and Hove Council have told them the plan would upset those whose language was not included on the notices.

Veterans are also campaigning for railings to be put up to stop people clambering on to the monument.

Members of the Combined Ex-Services Association and Royal British Legion say the memorial has been neglected and allowed to fall into an appalling state.

Beer bottles, drink cans, crisp packets and plastic bags are regularly dumped in the water feature by the memorial, which marks the heroic efforts of sailors and the Merchant Navy during both world wars.

The council promised to mount a clean-up before Remembrance Sunday on November 12, but ex-servicemen say there is a long way to go before the monument resembles those on the Continent.

Former commando Nobby Clarke, 79, said: "Over there they seem to be proud of those who gave their lives for their country, but no one seems to be bothered here.

"People come to the memorial and sit and eat their food. I've even seen people washing their dogs in the water in front of it."

Vic Cox, 80, said: "People just treat this place as a picnic spot, but you can't blame the youngsters because they probably don't realise what it is."

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald has taken up the veterans' campaign and is pressing the council to improve the site.

He said: "What is really felt here is that people don't respect this war memorial."

Mark Shippam, Brighton and Hove Council's grounds maintenance inspector, said in a letter to Mr Theobald: "With regard to having multi-language signs put up around the area, it is something we would want to avoid due to the risk of offending nationalities whose languages were omitted."

A council spokeswoman said: "We have only had one complaint about this and there is no evidence that foreign speaking people are littering the area.

"Our grounds maintenance team visits the site once a week and we don't want to put up a lot of signs because we have a policy on street clutter."