The editor of The Argus in Brighton has made a formal complaint to a parish council after councillors tried to eject a journalist from a public meeting.

The newspaper has reported that Falmer parish councillors tried to kick Argus reporter Simon Barrett out of a meeting in a village hall.

Discussions had been due to take place on whether to appeal against the Government's decision to grant Brighton and Hove Albion planning permission for a 22,500-seat arena at Village Way North.

It claims the meeting was clearly marked as public, but was changed to confidential after the Argus reporter arrived.

The Argus says councillors refused to debate the issue in front of the press, and a villager later physically stopped the reporter getting back into the building.

Editor Michael Beard has written to council chairwoman Melanie Cutress to complain.

The letter said: "We, members of the press, are entitled to attend the public meeting, which was in fact labelled as 'public' on the door, unless the matters to be discussed were confidential or prejudicial to the public interest.

"It is clear from the agenda of the meeting that the issue regarding Falmer stadium was to be discussed in the presence of the public.

"It was only when the reporter from The Argus arrived that there was a discussion and the issue regarding the stadium was branded 'confidential'.

"It seems very clear to us that the sole reason the parish council removed the Falmer stadium issue from the agenda is because they did not want a representative from The Argus to be present, despite their approval of the presence of any other members of the public."

The paper says it also considered complaining to the Local Government Ombudsman, but the watchdog does not cover parish councils.

The parish council has a duty to hold meetings in public unless the matter is deemed confidential and a resolution to exclude the public is put forward. The law does not allow councils to remove a particular member of the press or public.

The move has attracted dozens of reader comments on The Argus website, many of which back the paper while some claim a 'bias' by the paper in favour of the stadium led to the ban.