Most people today would agree the human form is nothing to be ashamed of.

But try telling that to our predecessors who, within living memory, banned women in bathing costumes from walking on Worthing promenade.

It may sound completely ludicrous in a day when topless bathers hardly draw a second glance but it is absolutely true.

In the summer of 1934, there was even a council debate about the menace of young women parading along the seafront in skimpy costumes.

Many who complained were firmly rooted in the Victorian era and took the sea air while wearing dark, heavy ankle-length dresses, shaded from the sun by wide-brimmed hats and parasols.

They were mortified by this early expression of women's lib and the sight of flesh guaranteed a barrage of complaints to the town hall.

The protests became so vociferous the parade, parks and allotments committee met to discuss a crackdown on young ladies who dared to stroll about in a state of partial undress.

Beach inspectors were ordered to intercept the scantily clad and request them to cover up when they walked off the shingle beach.

The town clerk said people walking along the front could not help but be offended at some of the ugly sights they saw. It was a matter of public decency.

A councillor by the name of Kinch said he had even seen women in costumes shopping in the town centre.

The prudes carried the day and the new inspectors had the envious task of implementing the ruling.

The Press was scathing in its criticism of the crackdown. Columnists argued the rule could not been forced because people had widely differing views on what was acceptable.

Two girls crossing Brighton Road from a beach hut in East Worthing to fetch ice creams from a nearby dairy were among the first to fall victim to the policy.

Fleet Street picked up the story and it soon became clear the councillors who had voted in favour of the cover-up had become a national laughing stock.

The issue of decency cropped up again in the late Seventies when daring sunbathers, returning from package holidays in Spain, started going topless.

There were the same tuttuts from the prim and proper brigade, which warned that standards were slipping.

Even hardnosed journalists were slightly embarrassed as they marched across the town's shingle beach in shirt and tie looking for semi-naked women to interview.

So what will cause the next moral stink in Worthing?

How about a nudist beach at Goring or a lapdancing club in Broadwater?

It is surely only a matter of time.