A new law enforcer has cleaned up Sussex's most violent street.

The Argus revealed a police league table of the roughest roads in the county on Tuesday which placed Terminus Road, Eastbourne, top.

But Eastbourne Police have released figures showing that in the last four months crime has plummeted along the thoroughfare.

Chief Inspector Dick Coates, who took over as Eastbourne District Commander in April, said: "My stance on early robust action will continue and the message is beginning to filter down that we want people to enjoy Eastbourne night time economy but we will not tolerate bad behaviour."

In April, May and June, the period which was used to compare streets across Sussex, Terminus Road saw 30 instances of violent crimes which landed people with injuries.

But since then only 14 of these offences has been recorded for the whole of July, August and September - a 50 per cent reduction.

And in September and October, only one violent crime was committed each month.

Overall figures dropped to 43 violent crimes compared with 57 in the previous quarter, which would have placed the road fourth in the table.

The previous league saw Terminus road knock West Street, Brighton, from the county's top spot.

Terminus Road was the scene of 57 violent crimes in the three months to June 2007 - the highest number of any street in the county.

And all five town centre streets in Eastbourne which are monitored by Sussex Police recorded increases in injury-causing violent crimes in period, rising from 52 to 79 compared with the same quarter in 2006.

This was in contrast to other areas of the county where the number of the most serious incidents had fallen.

But Chf Insp Coates said since he had taken over the reins violent crime had dropped steeply overall.

He added that the latest figures showed a dramatic fall in offences.

He said: "When I came I made the decision that public place violent crime was too high in Eastbourne.

"Working with our partners we aimed to address this.

"I made a decision that people who were causing a problem would be arrested and dealt with under the public order act.

"The problem being every prosecution under this act is counted as a violent crime although no one is injured in any way.

"There are more officers than ever now deployed to police the night time economy.

"We should be sending out the message that injury crime has been reduced by Police activity and we have a firm grip on this issue."

He added that the crackdown on bad behaviour has seen violent crime drop by 15 per cent since April.