Traders in the Kemp Town area of Brighton are furious after being left off a new council shopping guide.

Thousands of copies of the Brighton Shopping Guide are being distributed to tourist information offices and towns.

But a map in the guide leaves out the whole of Kemp Town, with just an arrow at the side of the page showing shoppers where it is.

There are dozens of entries describing shops in Churchill Square and North Laine, but St George's Road does not have a single one.

Roland Wallis, acting chairman of Kemp Town Business Association, said: "It is as if we don't exist. There is so much money and investment with Churchill Square, it seems as if it's the money that is making the decisions in this town.

"St George's Road is being ignored. We get a lot of support from individuals at the council but there is something very wrong with the whole system."

The association was again left dumbfounded when new bins promised by the council were instead sent to George Street in Hove.

Traders are still waiting for signs to be put on up the seafront pointing the way to them.

A Brighton City Centre Business Plan up to 2002 - sent by the council to companies interested in investing in the town - includes a map which goes as far west as Montpelier Road but stops east at the Old Steine.

Association secretary Jonathan Macfarlane said: "It is terrible we are not in the plan. We are a wonderful, bohemian area but we are not promoted."

Brighton and Hove marketing manager Mel Sensicle said the shopping guide used to be produced by the North Laine Traders' Association.

She said: "The reason is historical really. The guide was created by the North Laine traders for the town centre and it has remained that way."

She said the booklet would merge with the city guide next year to include St George's Road.

Council economic development and regeneration officer Philip Thomas, who worked on the business plan, said it was produced with the town centre business forum, to include only the town centre. The intention was other neighbourhoods would eventually produce their own business plans, which Hove had done.

He sympathised but "the lines had to be drawn somewhere."