Business leaders are convinced Brighton could be one of the UK's top ten shopping centres if only its rubbish and graffiti were cleaned up.

Research released today shows Western Road in Brighton ranks 58th out of 650 retail locations in the country. This is a rise of 11 places on last year's figures.

But Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce insists Western Road should be even higher up the league.

Spokeswoman Frances Hix said: "There has been a specific plan to fill the voids in Western Road. The council targeted certain companies that had not got a presence in Brighton and specifically marketed it to them.

"It has been helped by the gelling of Churchill Square and the seafront development.

"All of this is coming together to improve the viability of running a business in Brighton. It is really on the up.

"There are still a few problems to be cracked though, like rubbish and graffiti. Otherwise I think any town in the country would have a job beating us. We would be in the top ten."

Other towns in Sussex have improved in the rankings which use research by economic analysts Business Strategies.

Crawley rose five places to 54th, Chichester jumped three places to 67th and Hastings leapt more than 130 positions to 123rd.

Further down the league East Grinstead, Bognor, Burgess Hill and Hove also showed improvements.

However Worthing fell more than 40 places to 120th, Horsham plummeted 50 positions to 140th and Haywards Heath dropped more than 70 places to be ranked 188th.