They say if you can remember the Sixties, you weren't really there.

But "gentleman of the gents" Paul Chapman has more vivid memories than most of the sights, sounds and smells of the era.

Back in those swinging times, he hit the headlines as Brighton's best-dressed toilet cleaner.

Zooming between the seafront's conveniences on his Lambretta motor scooter, the sidecar filled with mops and brooms, he was a well-known sight.

Paul still dresses impeccably in a white shirt and silk cravat, smart trousers and shiny shoes.

But now, aged 67, he is more often mistaken for the mayor than a mod - as was once the case.

He said: "I used to dread it when the mods and rockers came down here.

"The police used to think I was one of them and I remember they once made me get off my bike and lay on the grass with the mods.

"But eventually they learned who I was. Without me, I think there would have been a lot more mess."

Paul grew up in Woodingdean and in his teenage years earned money selling firewood with his father.

He began working for Brighton Corporation in 1963 and had jobs as a gardener, road sweeper, toilet cleaner and dustman.

Rejecting the standard overalls, he cut a dash in a leather jacket, red leather waistcoat, Black Watch trousers, cravat and, in cold weather, a dog-check overcoat.

Drama was never far away and, in 1976, Paul was back in the news after finding a head in a cubicle in Millers Road.

It turned out to be a bronze cast of Henry Raward, a well-known character who haunted the Stag Inn in Portslade. The bust, which had fallen out of the back of an art student's car, was put up in the pub, where it remains to this day.

Paul said: "I still see all my old friends and they always give me a wave.

"It all seems a long time ago but the memories will always remain."