It is meant to be a chance when traders across Brighton and Hove fork out to put some colour into the street scene.

Brighton and Hove in Bloom has been running since the mid-Nineties and usually attracts entries from shops, restaurants and pubs across the towns who have gone that extra step to make their premises stand out.

But instead of a riot of colour brightening up the roads of the town centres, the dull hues of grey concrete, red brick and graffiti are all too apparent.

Tony Mernagh, town centre manager for Brighton, has attacked traders who have not bothered to sign up to the scheme.

He said: "I can't understand why a shop would not want to spend £20 to invest in a hanging basket to make the streets look better in parts of Brighton where it makes such a difference."

He singled out Western Road for criticism where, apart from pubs, only a handful of stores including Marks & Spencer, Evolution, Ann Harvey and Waitrose have bothered making the effort.

"It is a great shame that once again the new town has barely participated at all in Brighton and Hove in Bloom.

"If you got everybody in a street to take part it would look like a wonderland.

"It would be like them saying to their customers 'We appreciate your business and are prepared to make your shopping environment that much nicer and we will spend money on it'.

"It is literally £20 to buy a hanging basket from the council. I am just saddened that every shop in Brighton hasn't at least three outside."

Duke Street in Brighton has about 20 shops yet only four had baskets hanging outside.

June Topper, who runs the Old Village store, said: "There don't seem to be many hanging baskets around here, but when they first started it everybody had them."

While Brighton and Hove Council had made an effort to put up four hanging baskets in the centre of Brighton Square, none of the ten shops had bothered.

Malcolm Staley, owner of Rotunda Gifts which is on the edge of the square, said: "I think it's because it's been a difficult year for business since the opening of Churchill Square. People seem to have lost a little bit of enthusiasm."

Grenvill Nation, owner of Ananda in Bond Street, said: "We get baskets every year and have done it every years since the scheme started.

"The council has put a tub of flowers outside the shop but it seems to get used as a rubbish tip and some people try and swing off our baskets."

Lesley Edwards, who runs Jaba Yard in the same road, said: "I have just come back from Bath and every ten yards there is a hanging basket.

"They are all the same colours.

"There's practically no baskets in Brighton this year."

One North Laine trader who is not taking part in the scheme this year said: "We are all working in a much more competitive market and putting these up is a low priority.

"They may make the street look nicer, but I doubt if they bring in trade and that's what it's all about at the end of the day."

A council spokeswoman said orders for hanging baskets had reached about 200 this year which was higher than in 1999.

She added: "There may be less in Brighton town centre but we think there may be more in other areas so it is more spread out."