A secret report on the future of a derelict Worthing shopping centre has cast serious doubt on plans to transform it into a multiplex cinema.

The report, which The Argus has seen, said the viability of a cinema at Teville Gate was becoming increasingly questionable.

Now Worthing Borough Council plans to commission a "worst-case scenario" risk assessment.

It aims to find out the cost to the taxpayer if the council was forced to compulsorily purchase the four last remaining businesses in the precinct, paving the way for redevelopment.

The report, which will be discussed in secret by the executive, states: "There has been no meaningful progress in terms of the implementation of the cinema scheme and it may well be, in the light of the current circumstances, that its viability is becoming more questionable."

It urges councillors, who have already spent at least £16,000 on consultants' reports, to commission a risk assessment for an undisclosed sum.

One leading councillor said the bottom had fallen out of the cinema market and audiences were declining.

But Coun Chris Sargent, Liberal Democrat chairman of the borough's economic development committee, said: "I don't accept that.

"I take the view that it is still possible to get a cinema. The report is confidential but clearly the public is entitled to know what is going on."

Coun Brian Lynn, chairman of the Tory opposition, said plans to redevelop Teville Gate had dragged on for far too long but he said compulsory purchase of a chemist, electrical store, fast food kiosk and janitorial supplies shop was a last resort.

He dismissed suggestions that a new shopping centre could be built, adding: "Shops wouldn't be viable. We had shops there for years and they have gradually closed down one by one.

"It was one shopping centre too many."

Coun Lynn preferred leisure facilities, including restaurants on the site, which has become a boarded-up haunt for arsonists, drug addicts and muggers.

Councillors refused to say how much compulsory purchase might cost and declined to speculate on a figure of £200,000.