Senior politicians have criticised new proposals they believe will increase red tape within local authorities across Sussex.

West Sussex County Council claims a new Government inspection regime will dramatically increase bureaucracy within local authorities and divert vital funds away from services.

It comes as the council prepares its response to the plans which are due to be introduced by ministers in April 2009.

Council leader Henry Smith said the new Comprehensive Area Assessment inspection scheme, which the Government claims will improve council inspections, would result in staff filling in more forms and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to implement.

Coun Smith argued that his authority should face fewer rather than more inspections because of its recent good performance.

He said: "The current system rates the county council as a top rated four star authority and while there is always a need to check on how we are doing, the new inspection proposals pay no regard to whether councils are already performing well.

"Local authorities like West Sussex should get recognition for their track record, and benefit from fewer inspections rather than have more imposed."

Coun Smith also claimed the new inspection regime would not take into account funding levels when publishing its results.

The council believes it has consistently been one of the worst funded local authorities in the country in recent years.

Coun Smith continued: "The proposals do not take into account the funding levels from the Government towards our services.

"Our strong performance has been achieved against a backdrop of appalling grant settlements.

"Our success has been because of the efficiency savings we have made and will continue to make - that's money we want to inject into improvements in areas such as services to children, our older population, and highways investment, not on increased inspection costs and fees.

"We are already facing increases of 35 per cent over the next three years to cover inspection costs and that's without factoring in the impact of the Comprehensive Area Assessment and the extra staff time.

"At the end of the day, local government is about local people taking local decisions.

"Those decisions are inspected by the people who really count - our residents who have the ballot box at their disposal.

"Today's problem with central government is that the additional money being raised in taxes is not getting through to front line services but is getting diverted by growing bureaucracy."

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "We are confident the new proposals will work very well for local authorities and deliver value for money."