Young and old have come together to sign a charter to conquer the fear of crime and violence in their town.

Older residents in Seaford, are worried the town centre has become a no-go area during the evenings and at weekends.

Now, more than 17 community groups, in addition to individual residents, have got together to sign an accord.

The Rev David Gillard, of St Leonard's Church in Seaford, said: "People talk about the centre of Seaford as somewhere not always safe to be in on a Friday or Saturday night.

"Having said that, there are lots of things happening in the town to counteract that.

"The message is that Seaford is a good place to be and is statistically one of the safest places in East Sussex.

"Historically, we have lots of older people but the biggest growth area is younger families, so we are hoping to bring the generations together."

Mr Gillard said he was hoping to establish a road show in the summer to give tips to both younger and older people about safety.

There will also be discussion forums during the next nine months giving all sectors of the community a chance to put their opinions across.

Seaford Mayor, Les Whittle, put his name to the charter on behalf of the town council.

He said: "My personal view is that the best thing to deter crime is uniformed police on the beat.

"But anything that helps bring people together and do their best to look for the good things, as well as the bad things, goes a long way to keeping crime away from the town.

"I think anything like this will make a difference. It might not solve everything but it will do good.

Town clerk, Len Fisher, said: "The idea was originally put forward by Mr Gillard and his initial view was he wanted to target the perception that Seaford is an unsafe place.

"We have one of the lowest crime rates around but there's a fear that it is unsafe to go out at night.

"The older population see youngsters and assume that if there are a lot of them, there will be problems. This is probably common throughout the country but again it is not really the case."

Other signatories to the document included the police, Seaford Residents' Association and other church groups.