Cats abandoned on the streets of Sussex will soon be living in a millionaires' playground.

The 30 moggies are being shipped to Guernsey to help tackle a cat shortage.

The cat-neutering programme on the Channel island has been so successful it is almost feline-free.

So animal charity workers unable to keep up with demand for rescue cats and kittens turned to their counterparts in Sussex for help.

Billy Elliott, of Worthing and District Animal Rescue Service (Wadars), is being paid to take an ambulance full of cats to Guernsey, an island rumoured to have more millionaires per square mile than Los Angeles.

The ferry company Condor, which runs vessels from Dorset to the island, is paying the fare for his £250 round-trip on August 10.

The shortage of cats has been caused by the reliable and wealthy residents of the island being all too happy to pay the fees to neuter their pets.

Jenny Fox, of the Guernsey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA), said the number of cats being taken in by them each year had fallen from 1,000 to 100 since 2000.

She said: "We are getting up to six calls a day from people who want a young cat or kitten and we just have to tell them to keep calling back in the hope some kittens come in the meantime."

The situation means the GSPCA has revised its previous advice on spaying.

Jenny said: "What we now say is if responsible owners want to let their cat have one litter before spaying, not litter after litter, then they should go ahead as long as they do it properly.

"In the ten years I have been here I have never known anything like this.

"We asked cat owners to be responsible and they've done it too well."

Mr Elliott will take the cats to the island in an air-conditioned ambulance.

He said: "Our cats were unwanted and this offer of a new life in Guernsey has to be good for them.

"As a goodwill gesture, I did offer Guernsey 200 herring gulls too but they weren't interested."

Mr Elliott will choose a mixture of moggies to take with him - male, female, a variety of colours and personalities.

He said: "We will take nice, friendly ones. We aren't taking all our difficult ones."