A dental practice destroyed in the floods wants to build new premises - on stilts.

North Street Dental Practice, in Lewes, is to be demolished after being swamped by several feet of water when the River Ouse burst its banks in October.

The cost of replacing equipment and building new premises is expected to run to £500,000 and not all of the sum will be covered by insurers. Now the practice has decided to apply to Lewes District Council for planning permission for a building which will rest on top of stilts.

It is hoped the design will keep water at bay, protecting expensive equipment, during floods in the future.

Practice manager Sue Dumelow said: "We only had half an hour to get out and did not have time to save any equipment. It was very traumatic for the staff, who were wading about in several feet of water.

"We are vulnerable because the car park backs on to the Pells area which very often gets flooded. We are worried that if it has happened once it could happen again, for whatever reason, be it global warming or torrential rain.

"We want to stay where we are, we serve 14,000 people in Lewes. The more we talked about putting the new building on stilts, the more we realised it could be a real possibility."

The six dentists at the practice are holding consultations with architects who are designing the new single-storey building, which will be lowered on to brick stilts by a crane. They will apply for planning permission in the next few weeks.

The pre-fabricated building is only expected to take about six weeks to put in place.

The practice, which is currently only dealing with emergency house calls, is hoping to receive grant aid to help it install disabled access to the site.

It received a £500 grant from the Enterprise Agency Brighton, Hove and Lewes which it used to pay for a mailshot to warn patients about its closure.