Due to recent revelations in the Press regarding South Heighton Tunnels, I now own a devalued house and have a noose around my neck with regard to the future sale of my property.

I cannot afford to pay for the tunnels to be filled in. I am informed I have an obligation and responsibility for the safety of any person entering the tunnels whether with permission or via other means.

It is my belief that if the tunnels are handed over to English Heritage and a Lottery grant becomes available, the tunnels then become safe and protected.

People of Newhaven born and raised in the area who know what Newhaven Fort became in the early Sixties will remember when drug parties and vandals nearly destroyed it.

A tribute is owed to the hard-working community who transformed the fort into a place which families can visit and enjoy.

I am happy that one person appears to have plenty of money and can afford to pay

for the tunnels to be blocked off or filled in.

I am sad that this can cause such hardship and distress to so many people regarding the value of their properties.

To prevent our children's understanding of what people really endured is lamentable.

I am not a member of the tunnels group. I am a family man whose relatives were born in South Heighton and Tarring Neville and go back generations, who worked the railways and the land and who endured the hardships in this area.

How do we now protect our houses from being damaged by subsidence? You read in newspapers on a regular basis about the subsidence in mining towns in the North of England and the towns in the South-West.

Is this now likely to happen to us?

Good luck to Mr Ellis and his committee members. In the past I buried my head in the sand but now I praise you for your hard work to restore something so worthy and of such local importance.

-Name and address supplied