A council is threatening legal action to overturn Government targets which are forcing it to find room for thousands of new homes.

East Sussex County Council will retaliate against the Transport Secretary's decision not to build the Hastings bypass by challenging whether the homes should now be built.

Councillors say the county's road network is inadequate, a problem aggravated by the minister's refusal to approve the £120 million bypass around Hastings and Bexhill.

Council leader Peter Jones said the council would ask for talks with the Government to reduce the targets but, if those failed, the authority could seek a judicial review.

He said: "It is wholly unrealistic for the Government to expect Hastings, Rother and the county to deliver the number of houses ministers pencilled in for us."

Ministers want 11,450 homes to be built in East Sussex during the next five years, with up to 40 per cent expected to be built on greenfield sites. Regional planners had recommended only 9,300 for the county.

East Sussex faces acute pressure finding room for the homes. Large parts of the county are protected by two areas of outstanding natural beauty, while guidelines to stop building on flood plains rules out other, low-lying areas.

Mr Jones said it was possible the council would join other counties, such as Kent, which are also set to challenge the Government's targets.

Neighbouring West Sussex failed in its own High Court bid to overturn targets in 1999.

Bexhill councillor Ron Dyason said a major housing development had been planned at Worsham Farm, north of Bexhill, but the bypass needed to be built for the scheme to go ahead.

The alternative was to build the homes in towns and villages throughout the eastern half of the county, leading to building inside the High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty.

He said: "We should say, 'Sorry, mate. You have not given us an infrastructure and we cannot build anything like those numbers'."