Ambitious plans to restore a Worthing landmark may be delayed by up to two years.

The £2.5 million refurbishment programme for the Dome Cinema in Worthing was due to be finished by December 31, 2003, but it is now proposed to shift the completion date to December 31, 2005.

The project is being carried out by the Worthing Dome Regeneration Trust, which bought the run-down Grade II listed building from Worthing Borough Council for a nominal £10 in 1999.

The building had been neglected for 30 years and needed major restoration to the roof and numerous other repairs.

The trust undertook to complete the work by the end of 2003, including the creation of a new tourist information centre within the building which would be leased to the council.

When complete, the Dome building was to open as an entertainment complex including a museum, cinema, restaurant, cafe, lecture hall, meeting room and bar.

Now the trust has asked the council to extend the deadline to allow more time to arrange funding.

Chairman Belle Stennett said: "We are only a small band of volunteers and we have been so busy running the cinema everything else is taking longer than we thought it would.

"I think we were a little over-ambitious to think we would be able to finish the work in such a short time."

The trust has been promised £1.75 million of lottery money for the restoration but has to prepare detailed plans for the administrators of the Heritage Lottery Fund before it will be released.

A total of £42,000 has already been handed over to cover the cost of preparing the reports.

Mrs Stennett said: "It is a very lengthy and detailed process. It has taken us a year just to prepare the conservation plan, which is important because it will be a template for the whole project."

The lottery grant is conditional on the trust raising an additional £500,000 to contribute to the project.

Work carried out so far includes reopening the cinema, which had been closed for eight months before the trust took over, and a new bar.

The front of the building is shortly to receive a makeover.

The proposal to delay the completion date by two years is expected to be agreed by Worthing Borough Council's executive member for resources, Steven Waight, on Wednesday.