The millennium baby boom is causing a crisis in pre-schools, with large numbers of children leaving to start school and new pupil numbers dwindling.

Nurseries in Heathfield say the swell of pupils seen after January 2000 has yet to be matched as youngsters leave for primary school.

At St Richard's Pre-school in Green Lane, which takes youngsters aged two to five, staff say they are struggling to find new pupils following a drop in intakes in the past two years.

Twenty-two children left last summer, with only 14 arrivals starting the following term.

The pre-school is run as a charity with a parent-led committee to head up fund-raising.

Committee chairwoman and mother-of-two Julie Allen, 33, said: "Because everybody was aiming for a millennium baby the birth rate that year was very high and consequently the year after it was very quiet.

"It seems all the schools are saying the same and we are struggling. We have to rely on donations and fund-raising but because of the committee and the staff there is no way we would go under."

The cost of maintaining St Richard's is estimated at about £20,000 a year.

Parents pay for each session their child attends until the age of five.

Nursery vouchers, which are available from age three and upwards, cover the cost of pre-school until youngsters move on to primary level.

The kick-back from the baby boom is also felt at Sheepsetting Pre-school, in Waldron Church Hall, Heathfield, where more than 40 children were attending until summer of this year.

Committee member Sam Keylock, 37, said: "We lost 23 children in the summer and it wiped out the playgroup.

"There were so many children born after the year 2000 and they all came of age at once and then nothing.

"We have about 16 registered now and unless we can get more we will be running at a loss and we will have to close down."

Ruth Szulecki, East Sussex County Council's early years and childcare manager, said: "We don't know whether there is a pocket being affected by low nursery numbers but we have had this issue raised before and there appears to be a drop in numbers, particularly for three-year-olds.

"But in terms of education funding for nursery places we are maintaining the same amounts if not an increase on last year, although we are being told generally in East Sussex there is a declining population, a national trend."

Parents and staff from Sheepsetting are to hold a jumble sale at Waldron Church Hall on Saturday from 2.30pm, followed by a ladies' indulgence evening on November 26, offering health and beauty therapies.

For details of either event, call 01435 864314.

A Christmas fair at St Richard's Hall on November 13 will mark the launch of festive celebrations to collect money for the nursery.