Littlehampton's fishermen are no strangers to troubled waters.

Five years ago, fishermen at Littlehampton Harbour invoked the obscure 18th-Century White Herring Fisheries Act, claiming it gave them the right to moor freely on the riverbank.

At that time, fisherman Clive Mills was fighting Arun District Council and Littlehampton Harbour Board in the High Court over the loss of his berth.

The council eventually won the case, allowing its East Bank riverside scheme to go ahead.

The multi million-pound project has won a string of awards for a development that includes homes, the Look and Sea! visitor centre, a youth hostel and a new lifeboat station.

But the scheme also highlights the fishermen's ongoing struggle for survival in Littlehampton.

Five years after Clive Mill's court battle, Arun Yacht Club has given boat owners notice to quit their moorings by the end of this year because the berths are a safety hazard and insurers will not renew the cover when it runs out in December.

The fishermen fear they will be not able to find suitable alternatives and could lose their businesses. Phil Oxley, one of the boat owners ordered to leave his berth, said fishing was once a tourist attraction at Littlehampton Harbour but was now being pushed to the corners.

He said: "We have a lot of local support. The 14 registered fishing boats have been scattered around the harbour due to a lack of moorings. Now the yacht club has found an excuse to say its moorings are unsafe, even though they have been in this state for 25 years.

"Some of us may have to sell up and go on the dole.

"The fishing industry has been operating from this harbour for more than 400 years. Arun District Council has based the image of the East bank development on the fishing heritage of this harbour, yet the development is just a characterless and sanitised facade. It seems that everyone wants the image of fishing but not the reality."

John Kendall, 59, has been fishing from the harbour for 30 years.

He said: "We have no privileges here. The thing that is really annoying is that the council takes photographs of the boats to show Littlehampton as a beautiful rustic fishing village but the council is not actually interested in us.

"We used to sell fish at Nelson's Steps and people would come to buy fish off the boats. Back in 1985, the council decided to stop that. The harbour board has done nothing over the years to promote fishing and the council does even less.

"The harbour is just going to people who can afford the new flats. They complain about the seagulls making a noise in the mornings. When we gut fish, the seagulls do get overexcited and make a noise. But if you buy a home in a fishing village that is what you expect.

"Littlehampton has turned into a London village full of London people. This used to be a lovely old town 30 years ago but slowly and surely it has been suffocated."

Yacht club commodore Dave Tebay said the fishermen had been given three months notice because its insurers were unwilling to renew cover for the moorings at the end of the year.

He said: "We took over these moorings form the harbour board some years ago. They are very elderly and nearing the end of their life. We have grave health and safety concerns for the people there. If anything was to happen, we could be personally responsible.

"All the boat owners who have contacted us have been offered alternatives but they don't have as good access to high water. That is a problem for the fishermen because they require deep water and we can't provide those moorings for them."

A planning application for a new development of moorings has been lodged by the club but construction work is unlikely to start in the near future.

When the moorings are replaced, the fishermen will be free to apply along with everyone else but the replacements will be more expensive than the current ones and there is still the problem of what the fishermen do in the meantime.

Harbour board chief executive John Sharwood said the board had closed some of its own moorings that were in a similar state to the yacht club's because it feared getting sued if there was an accident.

He said: "It's not within our means to subsidise the berths. Even if we could subsidise the fishermen, we don't have any moorings ourselves available. The ideal solution would be to create a similar facility for the fishermen on the west bank.

"There is still a very good living to be made from fishing if you do it properly. There have been scares in the past but fishing has always managed to be accommodated some way or other."

The council said it was negotiating with Arun Yacht Club and Littlehampton Fishermen's Association about providing moorings for the fishermen on a piece of land called the "island", near the existing berths. The island is owned by the council and leased to the yacht club.

A council spokesman said: "We are waiting to hear from Arun Yacht Club about whether it will surrender the island back to us, as this would allow the fishermen to continue with their livelihoods."