Brighton and Hove Albion's longest-serving player has vowed to withhold his council tax unless Lewes District Council drops its Falmer legal challenge.

Defender Kerry Mayo, 28, lives in Newhaven and refuses to finance the council's challenge, which he fears could ruin his employer.

He said: "I know thousands of others feel the same and I hope they will join me in refusing to pay any council tax increase.

"I'm prepared to take this all the way. They can't throw us all in jail."

Cuckfield-born Mr Mayo, who is being honoured with a testimonial this year after ten years of service to the Albion senior team, added: "If we get a council tax increase next year we will know why and I will not pay it.

"My wife Kerry has already written to the council to tell them. I pay just under £140 a month and that is what I intend to pay next year if the council goes ahead with this.

"Albion are my employers and I have been a fan since childhood. I signed as a schoolboy aged 11.

"How can I take my wages from the club and then go and give them to a council which seems intent on destroying us?

"I couldn't do it out of principle. It would be like betrayal."

Mr Mayo, the only current squad member to play at the Albion's old Goldstone Ground, added: "People in Newhaven are angry about the prospect of an incinerator which will be burning rubbish produced in Brighton.

"If the council wants to fight something, it should be fighting that rather than meddling in an issue which hardly affects anyone in Lewes.

"The only part of the proposed stadium which falls into Lewes district is the car park."

Mr Mayo's defiant stand comes after The Argus revealed how residents in Lewes district voted three-to-one against their council's bid to derail the Falmer stadium.

A poll by The Argus, published on Saturday, surveyed a random sample of 242 members of the public and found 74 percent believed Lewes District Council was wrong to ask for a judicial review into the decision to allow a new community stadium at Falmer.

The survey raises serious questions about the credibility of the council's claim to represent the views of its voters on Falmer.

Lewes District Council said it would take comments from its residents into account, confirming it would take the findings seriously.

A spokeswoman told The Argus the council planned to release further information today about its plans to take legal action against the decision to allow a stadium at Falmer.

Fans reacted angrily after councillors met in secret to discuss the judicial review on November 24, refusing to let the public hear their discussion by barring The Argus from their meeting.

This was despite a legal appeal by The Argus which called on the council to hold the cabinet meeting in public.

A judicial review on the 22,000-capacity stadium at Falmer could cost the council anything from £25,000 to hundreds of thousands if it loses and has to pay costs.

The council has already spent £207,000 in its fight against the stadium.

Mr Mayo's stand is the latest backlash against the council.

A parliamentary motion has been tabled by all three Brighton and Hove MPs.

The Early Day Motion, presented to the House of Commons, states: "This House regrets the decision taken by cabinet members of Lewes District Council at a meeting from which the public was excluded, to seek to challenge by judicial review the decision of the Deputy Prime Minister, which supported the siting of a new community stadium at Falmer."