A town centre eyesore will continue to rot because of unviable cinema plans and costly compulsory purchase orders.

Teville Gate shopping centre has a long and depressing history of failed attempts to redevelop it.

After it was built in the Sixties, a steady stream of shopowners tried to operate from the site and eventually left.

Now most of the site is daubed in graffiti and some boarded shops are occasionally broken into by squatters.

Only a pharmacy and retail store remain in the precinct and attempts to relocate them so a multi-screen cinema could be built have proved too costly for Worthing Borough Council.

At a meeting, Worthing's executive voted against using compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) to remove the Teville Gate tenants, following a report by chartered surveyors Donaldsons, which outlined how building a cinema was not viable.

Council leader Sheila Player said: "The CPOs would have cost thousands and thousands.

"We are in the hands of the developer - it is up to him to put a planning application forward or not. We have explored all options to get a cinema on the site.

"The council is trying to push this forward and we have made it abundantly clear that we want a good quality development there."

A council report said: "When planning permission was first granted for a cinema at Teville Gate, visitor estimates were substantially higher than they are now.

"With the substantial fall in anticipated visitors, the Teville Gate scheme has become quite unviable and this is really why cinema development has not progressed."