A new bid is being launched to ban buses from South Street in Worthing town centre, leaving it a pedestrian-only zone.

Traders say it would mean people could walk in safety without having to breathe vehicle fumes.

The street was part-pedestrianised several years ago but now the Worthing Town Centre Initiative, which represents shops, now wants the whole area paved over.

Councillor Sheila Player, leader of Worthing Borough Council, has backed the idea.

She said: "I have always stated that it should have been fully pedestrianised."

She said it was "ludicrous" that South Street was only partly pedestrianised and has instructed council chief executive Sheryl Grady to write to West Sussex County Council, the highways authority, asking it to look again at the issue.

But any plans to pave over South Street could spark opposition from bus companies and lead to High Street being substantially widened, resulting in the loss of car parking.

Councillor Player doesn't regard that as a serious problem and believes a pull-in lay-by at the Pavilion Theatre end of South Street would enable buses to pick up passengers.

Chris Spratt, chairman of the Initiative, said: "We felt it was a pity that South Street is more of a giant bus stop than anything else.

"If you were looking for the dream ticket it would be for South Street to be pedestrianised.

"We accept we have got to have buses in the town centre, but do they really have to go right through the middle of South Street? It would be preferable for South Street to be completely free of traffic."

A county council spokesman said the authority had not yet received any proposals, formally or informally.