Traders are warning a clean-up of shopfronts will drain the life out of Brighton's best-loved bohemian quarter.

Thirteen shopkeepers in the North Laine district have been served with notices by Brighton and Hove City Council ordering them to remove their colourful signs.

Some are being threatened with £100-a-day fines unless they comply.

The council blitz is aimed at getting rid of signs which stick out too much, are in the wrong place or are too bright.

But small businesses believe the council is trying to create a blander vision for North Laine following the arrival of a pristine new development of shops, offices and housing.

Among the 13 shops is optician Bromptons, which has been ordered to remove the yellow and purple Safe Specs sign which has been on its second floor for 20 years.

Owner Sarah Dickinson said: "I bought the business two years ago and I didn't know there was a problem.

"They said it interferes with the visual amenities in the area but it doesn't at all."

North Laine grew up in the 1830s and now boasts some 300 shops selling everything from retro Fifties wear and jewellery to Balinese furniture and vegetarian shoes.

A new library due to open early next year is expected to bring new visitors to the area.

Many traders believe North Laine's slightly shabby look is a vital part of its appeal.

They are angry Komedia, which has huge illuminated lettering on its front, seems to have escaped the council's attention.

Andy Connell, of the Wildcat body jewellery store in Gardner Street, was told to remove his sign by yesterday.

He said: "Three months ago the council contacted us to say our sign was not in keeping with the conservation area and it would have to be removed because it was too bulky and internally lit.

"We turned the light off but they still said no."

Mr Connell, who faces being fined up to £100 a day, is holding last-ditch talks with the council in a bid to save the sign.

Hocus Pocus in Gardner Street - whose customers include Heather McCartney and Julian Clary - got into trouble because its sign was obstructing a Georgian window. But its owners have been allowed to move the sign rather than take it down.

Worker Maggie Orton said: "We are surviving because we offer a different sort of service from high street shops. If the council runs amok and cleans it up to the point of being sterile, we will lose that."

She said traders were being targeted because they were "a bit too liberal, eclectic and ethnic" to fit in with the new shops coming into the area.

A council spokeswoman said: "We are responding to a request from the North Laine Community Association to see if signs in the area are in breach of the regulations.

"Komedia is a much larger building than the others and can take the sign whereas on the more traditional shops it may look out of place."

Barry Leigh, of the community association, said: "There is no conspiracy. These shops should have applied for planning permission and didn't.

"Whereas before nothing happened, now they are finding it is being enforced."