Nightclub door staff are to be allowed to use handcuffs to restrain violent customers.

Three clubs in Worthing are thought to be the first in Sussex to have them - The Church in High Street, Toad at the Presshouse in Chapel Road and Eden in Goring Road.

Police and civil liberties groups are concerned about bouncers being able to use equipment normally reserved for police officers.

Guardit International Ltd, which staffs the Worthing clubs, said the cuffs would be used only as a last resort.

The company said the move would increase safety for staff and clubbers.

Area manager Dan Brace said: "Only senior personnel trained in their use will have access to them.

"We will work to Home Office guidelines which state they can only be used with lawful justification and that only reasonable force may be used."

Nightclubs are used to throwing out one or two rowdy punters on an average night and the police are sometimes too busy to respond quickly to a disturbance.

Mr Brace said the cuffs would only be used in extreme cases such as violence or a breach of the peace, and only until the police arrived.

He agreed the idea was controversial but said Guardit had investigated the legal and practical ramifications and was pressing ahead with plans to have the cuffs available at 20 clubs.

They will be on hand at the three Worthing clubs for the first time this weekend.

Ray Pattenden, spokesman for the Sussex branch of the Police Federation, said: "Taking someone's liberty is a very serious move and not something to be taken lightly.

"It is only taken in extreme cases and when police use cuffs they later have to justify why they did so."

The federation said that if bouncers used cuffs there was nothing stopping shopkeepers using them on thieves.

Rod Dalley, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "This causes us great concern and we fear it may cause more problems than solutions."

But Michael Quinton, managing director of Guardit, based in Weymouth, said using handcuffs would make the job of door staff easier and safer.

It would protect suspects who were sometimes injured as staff restrained them while they waited for the police to arrive.

He said his staff recently detained a man for 40 minutes before officers attended.

Human rights group Liberty said cuffs should only be used by the police.

The group said door supervisors had no more rights than ordinary men and women in the street and the cuffs themselves could cause injuries including bruises, leading to prosecution and litigation.