Resurfacing work on a main city shopping street will have to be done again because contractors used the wrong tar.

The base material which has been laid in Western Road, Brighton, will now have to be replaced before the final layer can be placed.

It means completion of the work will be delayed by about six days, causing further traffic disruption until the final surface is laid on Friday.

Contractors Tarmac consulted with Brighton and Hove City Council but it was decided there was no option but to replace the dodgy layer on the road, heavily used by buses between the Clock Tower and Montpelier Road.

A spokesman for Tarmac said: "Routine testing of the material laid as a base for the carriageway identified a fault in the mix.

"The result would be detrimental to the proposed lifespan of the road and would possibly result in the road rutting under the constant bus loads."

Tarmac said failure to act now could result in a second period of work and disruption in the not too distant future and stressed it would be funding the replacement of the faulty material which would be returned to a manufacturing plant for recycling.

No cost of the extra work will be borne by Brighton and Hove City Council, which ordered road humps to be removed before the road was rebuilt and resurfaced.

Tarmac has apologised to users of the road and to shopkeepers for the inconvenience.

Kevin Fry, managing director of CarCabs, said: "This is what we have come to expect - something not going to plan that affects traffic and trade.

"It is unfortunate the mix was not right but lucky it was found in time by quality control."

l It is not the first problem with tar this year.

Steps on Brighton seafront near West Street melted during the heatwave because they were repaired using the wrong type of asphalt.

The steps were resurfaced in August but had to be fenced off later in the month when workmen moved in to do the job again.

The city council said then the contractors had used non-porous material to surface the steps, which was not compatible with the steps themselves.

Western Road is the second busiest bus route in the city to North Street with 129 buses an hour, more than two a minute, using it in each direction.