A team of private security guards will carry out night-time patrols of villages, car parks, taxi ranks and piers in a council bid to tackle crime.

Worthing, Mid Sussex and Horsham councils are seeking tenders for a £900,000 contract to provide extra security for dozens of sites traditionally patrolled by the police across the county.

And the scheme could be extended to other areas of Sussex, according to documents released to The Argus.

The unit is to be brought in from June for three years, with an option to extend the agreement for another year.

Guards will provide security at council offices in the three West Sussex districts, with mobile patrols and a rapid-response team also planned.

Potential contractors have been told: “The councils require a three-year contract, with an option to extend for up to 12 months, for uniformed security staff to maintain the security of council offices and other specified areas, provide out of normal office hours mobile patrols for the depots, car parks, village centres, industrial estates, cemeteries, leisure centres and other specified areas and to provide a key holding and fire and intruder alarm response.

“All security personnel will be required to be Security Industry Authority licensed and comply with their codes of practice.”

In Horsham, the council’s headquarters, the park between the Pavilions in the Park leisure centre, skate park, Superbowl bowling alley and Shelley’s night club will have a dedicated security guard.

Between 7pm and 1am, mobile units will monitor the start-up businesses in Blatchford Close, the bus station, Country Park visitors’ centre, Hop Oast park and ride, Southwater Country Park and Southwater centre.

Horsham District Council is also asking contractors to maintain a 24-hour control room, which will provide a 30-minute response for any fire or intruder alarms set off.

Nightly mobile patrols are also planned in Worthing for the Broadwater Cemetery, Durrington Cemetery, Connaught Theatre, Pavilion Theatre, Assembly Hall, the crematorium, Field Place leisure complex, the pier, Meadow Road Depot and the Civic Centre.

Guards will also work at Worthing Town Hall, Highdown Gardens on an ad hoc basis and nightclub taxi ranks on weekend evenings.

Mid Sussex District Council is looking for personnel to monitor the Oaklands Campus, which includes the authority’s main offices.

The council is also bidding for a security presence at evening meetings when there is a “risk of disturbance due to controversial issues being discussed”.

Nick Herbert, Tory shadow minister for justice and MP for Arundel and South Downs, said: “I will continue to press for more PCSOs and police officers but the more uniformed presence on the streets the better.”