People being blasted by ultra-loud train horns have been told they will have to prove their health is suffering before a council acts to silence the hooters.

Brighton and Hove City Council has told residents they need a doctor to provide written evidence the deafening blasts are damaging their health.

The council said it could not justify taking legal action unless doctors agreed people were suffering.

Residents, who have been calling for action since new trains fitted with the loud horns started operating last year, called the move a stalling tactic.

Martin Dzelzainis, who lives in Highdown Road, Hove, said people affected by the hooters had been given only 12 days to submit the evidence to the council, in letters received on Friday.

He said: "They seem to be looking for a reason not to act. They seem to be looking for a delaying tactic - yet another one."

Jill Bridges, also of Highdown Road, said: "The evidence is here, it is obvious if you are living here. I think it is another stalling motion."

They have been backed by the Brighton-based Noise Abatement Society, which wants the council to stop the horns being sounded at night, as the first step to an outright ban.

Director Peter Wakeham said local authorities did not need medical evidence to use their noise abatement powers under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act.

He said: "It is just putting the residents to extra expense and delaying sorting out this serious noise pollution problem."

The new horns are more than twice as loud as those fitted to old slam-door trains and have prompted hundreds of complaints.