Plans have been unveiled to make the shopping environment in Worthing more attractive by improving facilities.

Worthing Town Centre Initiative will plough money into the centre through a series of schemes funded by the new Wednesday market operating along Montague Street.

Combined with projects being drawn up by Worthing Borough Council, people should start seeing considerable improvements during 2003.

Market traders have already donated £5,000 towards the Christmas Lights Appeal, which has struggled to drum up financial support from shopkeepers in previous years.

The police have vowed to clamp down on drunks and vagrants who infest parts of the town centre, especially Liverpool Gardens.

For the first time, those who refuse to stop drinking face arrest.

The council has earmarked £100,000 left in a bequest to the town for a major revamp of the gardens, including attractive flower beds and possibly a fountain.

An ornate iron archway will soon be installed at the "West End" of Montague Street, near Crescent Road, along with new street furniture and hanging baskets.

The council is also looking again at the possibility of pedestrianising all of South Street, resulting in a bus ban, which would reduce pollution.

In addition, a planning application is imminent for the redevelopment of Teville Gate, which forms the northern gateway to the town centre.

Chris Spratt, chairman of the initiative, said the membership scheme would involve more businesses in the revitalisation of Worthing's heart.

He said the success of a town began and ended with the town centre.

"If you have a pleasant, safe and clean town centre with interesting shops, everything else follows on from it.

"While the town centre is without a doubt a better place since we became involved, it would be naive to think there isn't an extremely long way to go."

He said the market switching from Union Place to Montague Street would attract more people from outside of Worthing to the town.

And it also provided a steady income for the initiative at a time when it was very hard to get government or council funding.

Town centre manager Sharon Clarke said the initiative was not interested in short-term fixes but in long-term goals.

Larger stores had already come together to share ideas and it was hoped this could be expanded, with increased co-operation with organisations such as Pubwatch and the Worthing Hospitality Association.

Mrs Clarke praised the borough council for taking on the task of eradicating graffiti, which was costing the initiative a considerable sum of money.

She said the cost of joining the membership scheme was just 21p a day, which unlocked numerous benefits for subscribers.

Councillor Sheila Player, leader of the borough council, said the over-riding objective for the council was to create a clean and safe Worthing.

She said: "You cannot encourage businesses to come to Worthing if it is strewn with litter, covered in graffiti, and it is not well cared for.

"We have been in power one year and so far we have invested in street-cleaning machinery and removing graffiti from not only the town centre but across the whole of the borough.

"There is not an easy solution to Teville Gate. It is owned by a developer who is interested in getting the best return from his investment.

"We are told we can expect a planning application in the next two or three months. Even we don't know yet what will be in the application.

"But we shall not accept anything short of a high-quality development at one of the gateways to the town centre."