Three nightclubs have been named and shamed in a campaign against fly-posting.

Illegal posters promoting club nights are often left up for weeks and cost thousands to remove.

During a one-day blitz along Brighton and Hove seafront, Cityclean enforcement officers spotted more than 50 illegal posters and handed out £1,500 in fines.

The fines - £50 fixed-penalty notices for each poster - were issued to Ocean Rooms in Morley Street, The Zap Club in Kings Road Arches and Concorde 2 in Maderia Drive for putting up 30 posters.

Gill Mitchell, the environment councillor at Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "We want to send out a clear message we will not tolerate fly-posting and will take swift action to prosecute those who spoil the seafront.

"Fly-posting is ultimately the responsibility of our nightclub managers and we would urge them to be more vigilant in tracking down where their events are being advertised."

She said the council was particularly disappointed with the latest fines because officers were working with the three nightclubs and seven other venues to look at providing more legal space to advertise events.

The council spends about £40,000 a year cleaning up posters and launched a campaign to stop it last year.

The Ocean Rooms was fined last year but Coun Mitchell said she did not want to increase fines for persistent offenders.

She said: "We don't want to be killjoys. Sitting down with clubs and talking it through it the best option."

A spokeswoman for Encams, which runs the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, said: "Fly-posting looks scruffy and ultimately produces a litter problem. It's not welcome in local communities.

"These clubs should have the budget to pay for a proper, legal marketing campaign. There's no reason for them to take the cheap route.

"I'm glad these clubs have been fined and hope other people will take it as a warning."

Trevor Madison, the production coordinator at Concorde 2, said the council's policy was ruthless and threatened the city's thriving music scene.

The club was fined £200 but Mr Madison said the posters were put up by independent promoters to advertise independent events. He said: "People come from all over the country to this club and we have some huge events that get national advertising.

"Brighton has an amazing music scene but we are stopped at every corner by the council saying we don't really want you to promote this.

"There isn't enough space to advertise in the town. The council should provide more but they are dragging their heels."

Zap Club bar manager Tony Edwards said the six posters for which it was fined £300 related to independent events staged at the club and the fines were passed on to the promoters.

He said: "It's mostly young promoters being naive. It should be common sense that you can't stick up posters anywhere but I don't think some of them know the rules until they get landed with a fine."