Cuckmere Haven cottage owners fundraising to build sea defences as cliffs erode

Watch: ITV News Meridian's James Dunham reports from Cuckmere Haven.

The owners of cliff-top cottages in Sussex are campaigning to build sea defences to stop them falling into the water.

The Coastguard Cottages, atop the cliffs at Cuckmere Haven near Seaford, are at risk of being lost forever.

Each year more and more of the cliffs are being lost to the tide, and the structures defending them, built in the 1940s, are no longer fit for purpose.

Cuckmere Haven SOS says it wants to fundraise and build new defences to protect the history of the area, which receives tens of thousands of visitors each year.

Cottage owner, Lucy Mutter, says she fears every day that something else will be lost over the cliffs.

Speaking to ITV Meridian she said: "It's fear. I mean, there's no other way to describe it really. It's... it's fear.

"You just don't know what you're going to find the next day. I mean, it might be something as simple as it's blown a roof tile off or a chimney pot or something.

"Or, on the other hand, you could come down here and find half the garden gone. Um, you know, so it's that sort of the sense of the unknown."

Current government policy is to allow natural processes to prevail on this stretch of coastline, which could well mean gradual or sudden coastal retreat.

Cuckmere Haven SOS say they have two options to protect the area, which they hope to fund themselves.

However, both will cost several hundred thousand pounds, and require approval from the South Downs National Park.

The group says it needs at least £250,000 for 'phase 1' of the project to protect the western side of the beach, and says all donations will go to protecting the landscape for future generations.

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