The busy Beach Retreat cafe, at Winchelsea Beach, has a cramped car park which often results in customers having to park on busy Sea Road.

The cafe owns a large area of land next door which is standing empty and would solve the parking problems.

But owner Pat Dallen says she has been told by planners at Rother Council that she would not be granted permission to use the land as it is outside the planning consent area.

Now more than 100 customers at the cafe have signed a petition calling for common sense to prevail.

She said: "It is very frustrating. The land is standing empty and we only want to use it to park a few extra cars on.

"I could understand it if we were planning on extending the cafe but we only want to use the land we own for parking.

"I wanted to apply for planning permission but have been told I would be very unlikely to get it."

"The cafe gets very busy at times, especially at weekends when it is used by wind-surfers.

"It is bedlam down here some weekends in the summer.

"It is a dangerous situation with cars parking on the road and I have seen dozens of near misses.

"One day a child will be getting out of the back of a car and there will be another car coming."