"F" word rumpus

Mr Doyle said he regretted swearing in front of the six-year-old boy during a charity walk but insisted he had only been repeating the phrase "Why are you telling me to F*** off ", after he'd asked the man to stop cycling illegally on the prom at Goring.

Worthing's civic leader said this week: "I said in the email I was very sorry to have repeated those words but they were not mine.

"It was not my intention for the meeting to turn into a confrontation. The first word I said to him was please. 'Please will you refrain from cycling on the seafront'."

Mr Doyle said he was asked by the man: "What's it got to do with you? I don't see a policeman's hat on your head" to which he replied: "I am the mayor of Worthing."

"He then told me to f*** off," Councillor Doyle said.

The cyclist, Jason Keffert, of Nutley Drive, Goring, has complained to West Worthing MP Peter Bottomley. He denies he swore first.

The mayor and mayoress, a sergeant based at the local police station in Chatsworth Road, had been taking part in the official engagement, a charity walk for Worthing Women's Refuge, from Lancing to Goring, on Sunday.

Mr Doyle insisted he asked people to stop cycling even when he wasn't on official business, wearing his robes and chain of office.

"I feel it was a reasonable request to ask people to stop cycling on the seafront," he said.

"I want people to be able to use the seafront without having to worry about bikes coming up on them."

Mr Doyle's term as mayor has seen him never far from the headlines.

As the town's first atheist mayor he hit the news when he abolished prayers at meetings and decided against having a chaplain.

And just last week he was jeered by East Worthing residents at a public meeting because he stood up to complain he had not received an official invitation.