Stop press. Shock announcement by Worthing Borough Council that there isn't going to be a Multiplex cinema built at Teville Gate.

Not exactly a huge surprise but I wonder if the Tory councillor who basically got elected on the back of promising the development will now be keeping a low profile?

So, if not a picture house, what will end up on the site of Worthing's "ground-breaking Seventies shopping centre"?

Apparently, the answer from within the corridors of power is a "social housing development", a phrase which, in the current climate, sends out all kinds of mixed messages.

It again calls into question the relationship between the council and a number of independent housing associations and all goes back to the issue of municipal housing.

Ironically, it is a 20-year-old or so policy - and superb vote-catcher - of Maggie Thatcher's government which helped create the problem Worthing finds itself with now.

Personally, I had nothing against the the right of council house tenants to buy their properties because everybody should have the opportunity to own their own home.

But without the provision for replacement municipal housing, the policy was always going to lead to trouble.

If every time the council had sold a house or a flat it had built one in its place, how long would the housing waiting list be now?

A lot shorter than its current level, that's for certain.

Which is why I'm mystified the council is working with the housing associations, whose policy is to eventually bring in tenants from "other areas".

Only when the list is at an acceptable level - and by that I mean young families waiting for a few months rather than years and not having to go into bed-and-breakfast accommodation to qualify - will I have no problem with new people coming to live in the town.

That is of course if these are the kind of people we would all like to have here - law-abiding citizens of all races, colours and creeds rather than a collection of thieves, sex offenders, drug dealers and general all-round scumbags other towns and cities don't want.

The new year has brought new hopes but walk round the parks of the town and, 21st Century or not, there is still the age-old curse of dog mess.

A couple of Sundays ago, in order to get the first match of the year under way at the Manor Ground, my Worthing United under-tens counterpart, Jason Albon, had to carry out the obligatory dog mess pick-up.

Thankfully his task was only confined to the playing area. Had he done it beyond the touchline, it would certainly have been a late kick-off.

And when a number of my under-eights were warming up for a friendly, we came across something there is no way any pet owner could have failed to see his or her animal deposit.

Looking at its size and colour made me wonder if there was not someone in Broadwater walking round with an elephant on a lead!