The battle for power on Worthing Borough Council will be decided on Friday.

Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors cannot agree on how the town's executive should be staffed following the May 1 elections, which resulted in a hung council.

The Lib Dems propose retaining control of the executive, the council's power base, and giving the Tories the chairmanships of the council's six committees.

With the Tories wanting half the six executive seats, a heated debate on the issue erupted at a recent meeting.

With a hung council, the balance of power rests with the town's mayor, who gets an extra vote.

Mayor-to-be Councillor James Doyle, a Lib Dem, is likely to back his party's proposals for retaining the executive.

Lib Dem leader Sheila Player said the Tories did not deserve the top seats because they had not shown their commitment by attending enough meetings in the past year.

She said: "Throughout our past year in control, Tory attendance was somewhat scant.

"We had three options. The first, giving the executive and leader positions to the Tory group was ruled out immediately because it was weak.

"We asked the Tory group to give us their proposals for what they thought would be a working council.

"I rang the deputy Tory leader and was informed the Tory option was for them to take three executive places, including community development, planning and leisure.

"We discussed their proposals at considerable length, talking about whether a split executive would work and we had a look at the experience and commitment of the members involved."

Coun Player said the Tories' experience would be put to better use on the council's committees.

However, Tory leader Councillor Steven Waight said the fact both parties now had 18 councillors meant Worthing residents wanted the two parties to share power equally.

He said: "Miss Player's tirade is interesting but irrelevant. It is a smokescreen to blot out the real issue.

"She needs to understand we are judged by the electors, not the Lib Dems.

"At the elections more than 22,000 people turned out to give their views and when the electorate had spoken we both had 18 seats."

A third of the council's 36 seats were up for grabs at the election, when the Lib Dems lost their majority.

Coun Waight said: "The electorate have judged us on our record. They voted for us to have seven seats and five for the Lib Dems.

"It's worrying. What we are getting is a challenge by the Lib Dems, which is opposed to the democratic will of the people."

The councillors so far proposed for chairmanships and executive positions were all Lib Dems because the Tories have not yet prepared a list of nominations.

The proposals include: Sheila Player for council leader; John Lovell, resources executive; Peter Green, environmental services executive; Maurice Tucker, leisure executive; Bob Smytherman, planning executive; Geraldine Lissenburg, community development executive; Hazel Thorpe, housing executive; Brian McLuskie, policy scrutiny committee chairman; Geoffrey Hart, services scrutiny committee chairman; Nick Rodgers, standards committee chairman; Janet Goldsbrough-Jones, planning committee chairwoman; Iona Baker, licensing committee chairwoman; and Eric Mardell, licensing committee chairman.