Campaigners bidding to restore Worthing's Edwardian Dome cinema have breathed a sigh of relief after plans for a multi-screen complex in the town were scrapped.

Worthing Borough Council originally wanted to knock-down the derelict Teville Gate shopping precinct and turn it into a multiplex with restaurants.

But last week the council admitted a cinema was no longer an option and it was looking at housing and small unspecified leisure facility instead.

Belle Stennett, chairman of the Dome Regeneration Trust, had feared a multiplex would have damaged custom at the historic seafront venue.

Last year, a second 118-seat auditorium, called the Electric Theatre, was opened at the Dome, providing up-to-date facilities and boosting the number of screens in the town to four.

Belle said: "I did think that if there was a cinema at Teville Gate, it would have upset the apple-cart as far as we were concerned. It would have had an adverse effect."

The trust has to raise £126,000 before it can unlock Lottery funding to begin a £1.8 million restoration of the Dome.

Belle said: "We are going to have lot more art-house films, which have been going quite well and our new matinees are very, very popular.

"We do rely on our children's audience and we are building up our adult audience."