Funding could be halted for a campaign to attract more tourists to an area hit by a series of high-profile crimes.

Over the past two years, thousands of pounds has been ploughed into the Arun district's tourism recovery plan.

It was drawn up by Arun Council in the wake of the murder of Sarah Payne near Littlehampton and a series of attacks on women in Bognor.

Cash has been spent on an extensive public relations campaign, which included advertising the area's attractions in national newspapers and magazines.

But on Monday the council's ruling Cabinet will discuss plans to halt the money and divert it elsewhere.

The move will be resisted by some councillors, who say it is too soon to stop the project.

Mike Northeast, chairman of the economic scrutiny committee said: "I'm terribly disappointed for Littlehampton. I feel sure that at that meeting we will be asking them to put the plan back on the agenda because the job has not been done yet."

Mr Northeast, a Littlehampton town councillor, said tourism operators had told him visitor numbers were still down.

He said: "They have had a bad summer. They haven't had the visitor numbers they expected and some are operating on a knife edge. We need that money to attract the day trippers back. "

The tourism recovery plan was set up in response to the damage to public confidence caused by adverse national publicity from the Sarah Payne case and other crime-related incidents.

In Bognor, a team of detectives launched an investigation after one woman was raped and at least 14 others were attacked.