A big chill descended on a booming cafe culture after council officials turned off a coffee shop's outdoor heat.

Highway officials spotted space heaters dotted around the seating area outside the Costa Cafe in Montague Place, Worthing.

Staff were ordered to remove the silver mushroom-shaped heaters after they were branded a health and safety hazard.

But one trader said the crackdown was "bonkers".

A West Sussex County Council reconnaisance patrol on the lookout for illegal pavement advertising boards spotted the heaters.

County council spokesman Nigel Galloway denied it was health and safety gone mad.

He said: "We did ask Costa to remove the gas heaters. One of our officers went there after a lady complained she had been hit by a revolving advertising board on the highway.

"He saw the heaters and asked for them to be removed.

"The county council can license chairs and tables on the highway but not heaters.

"There is an important safety issue. This is a very busy area of Worthing and if one of those heaters was knocked or fell over and burnt someone the consequences could be very serious not only for customers but for passers by."

But Chris Spratt, chairman of Worthing Town Centre Initiative, said: "It is just bonkers. It is mindless diligence. One can only wonder at their thinking."