Police have been accused of wasting resources by attending a peace demonstration of 150 people with enough officers to marshall a football match.

Councillors say Sussex Police went "totally over the top" by sending up to 100 officers to a march against the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The demonstration passed peacefully with no arrests but extra officers had been drafted in from Surrey to flank protesters.

It is the latest criticism of the Sussex force "over-policing" low-key demonstrations.

In March, it was accused of sending too many officers to marshall a protest outside the EDO MBM Technology factory in Home Farm Road, Brighton.

Then, more than 40 police vehicles, including vans, cars, motorbikes, CCTV and dog units, surrounded about 50 protesters demonstrating against the firm which makes bomb component parts for fighter jets.

Sussex Police said it was forced to prepare for a "worst case scenario" at Saturday's demonstration because organisers from Sussex Action for Peace had failed to give officers details of the march in advance.

So many officers were sent because the force claimed a similar march between Palmeira Square in Hove and the Palace Pier in Brighton three weeks ago resulted in a Jewish man being punched.

Police admitted the cost of the operation was on the same scale as policing a Brighton and Hove Albion football match which can attract thousands of supporters.

Brighton and Hove city councillor Francis Tonks, who was among protesters, said he counted about 100 officers. He said: "For a peace demonstration it seemed completely over the top."

Councillor Joyce Edmond-Smith, also in the march, said she had written to Sussex Police questioning the cost, which the force refused to disclose to The Argus.

She said: "There were far too many police, almost more than demonstrators."

Protest organiser Glenn Williams, of Park Crescent Road, Brighton, said: "We would not tell the police about any demonstrations in advance but they find out about it anyway. If they call me, I tell them what is on the leaflet."

Police said they had not been formally notified of the demonstration and expected up to 1,000 people to turn up following the previous march, which they described as "chaotic, causing huge traffic delays and complaints".

With the Airborne event in Eastbourne to police on Saturday, resources were stretched so senior officers drafted in extra police from Surrey to help.

When protesters finally arrived for the march on Saturday, police counted just 150 demonstrators.

Kevin Moore, divisional commander at Brighton and Hove police, said: "We were placed in a position where no individual or group formally approached us, as required by law, to notify us of the events due to take place.

"This situation inevitably means that in planning the policing of such events we have to prepare for the worst case scenario'."