Sussex Police should have used its new Child Rescue Alert in the hunt for missing two-year-old Merlin Reid, found safe after a ten-hour nightmare toddle.

That was the view today of the man who helped promote the scheme, Mike Mendoza.

The Adur councillor said: "I am disappointed. I know the alert is aimed at helping find children thought to have been abducted but so what?

"Thousands more people would have been made aware and surely the more eyes and ears looking for Merlin the better."

Sussex Police said using the alert, which interrupts TV and radio to broadcast appeals, was considered at a very early stage.

Chris Oswick, Sussex Police Press officer, said: "The decision was made that it was not appropriate in this case.

"There was no evidence Merlin had been abducted and there was no point issuing appeals to the public. The criteria for Child Rescue Alert were not fulfilled. This decision was borne out by events."

Merlin disappeared from his grandparents' house near Billingshurst at 2pm on Thursday and wasn't found until midnight - trapped in a tree root and dangling over a stream.

He had wandered a mile from safety, negotiated a slurry pit, bogs, brambles, a railway line and sewage works before finally slipping down the river bank.

Child Alert, based on a US scheme Amber Alert to find missing children within hours of their disappearance, is being piloted in Sussex.

In addition to media appeals, thousands of people have signed up to receive the alert on their mobile phones.

Mr Mendoza gave details of the scheme to Tim Loughton, Conservative MP for Shoreham and East Worthing, who was so impressed he called on the Government to consider similar schemes across the UK.

Child Alert was backed by the family of Sarah Payne, kidnapped and murdered in Sussex in 2000, and its launch followed the deaths of schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.