Sussex Police fear they will finish way down crime-performance tables because towns like Brighton and Hastings have wrongly been classified as "affluent" areas.

Police watchdogs are furious and believe the public will be misled because the Sussex towns will not be compared like with like.

Brighton and Hastings have pockets of deprivation and high crime which have not been taken into account for the tables, to be published for the first time nationally next month.

The labelling means they will be compared with the likes of comparatively rich areas like Canterbury, Richmond and Sutton.

Sussex Police Authority members are making the "strongest representations" through the Association of Police Authorities to have the classifications changed.

They believe the towns should be in different categories which give an accurate portrayal and include factors such as the high cost of housing, pockets of high crime and deprivation.

In May, Hastings was described as "one of the most deprived areas of Sussex" as it bid for European regeneration grants.

The Home Office classification is based on work carried out by Leeds University which used 1991 census data on population, social profiles, unemployment and overcrowding, but excluded crime rates.

The Home Office puts Brighton and Hastings, along with Seaford-Eastbourne, Worthing-Littlehampton and Hove and Shoreham in the affluent bracket.

An authority working party report says: "This has the immediate disadvantage of comparing them with areas with potentially less serious crime problems and with fewer social deprivation concerns."

Crawley-Horsham, Haywards Heath-Burgess Hill and Chichester-Bognor have been classed "smaller, more affluent" areas, along with Chelmsford, St Albans, Guildford and the New Forest.