A council faces a legal bill of £76,000 after losing a court battle over a blocked footpath linked to millionaire killer Nicholas Hoogstraten.

The High Court ruled East Sussex County Council ignored planning guidance when it ordered a diversion around the obstructed half-mile path.

The footpath, near Hoogstraten's unfinished Hamilton Palace, at Palehouse Common, Uckfield, has been the scene of a long-running dispute.

Hoogstraten branded ramblers "scum" before they mounted a high-profile walk of the path, blocked by barbed wire, locked gates, a barn and a giant fridge.

The council sparked renewed controversy when it agreed to divert the right of way around the obstacles, ending in last year's High Court defeat.

The ruling Cabinet will be told later this week that costs awarded against the authority total £50,315, or about 12 per cent of its annual rights of way budget.

The council spent another £26,000 defending its position in the legal wrangle.

Kate Ashbrook, the countryside campaigner who brought the case, said the council would have saved the money if it had cleared the path.

She said: "They could have saved themselves a lot of hassle as well, so they only have themselves to blame."

A 1,500sqm parcel of land, crossed by the path, was transferred to a company called Rarebargain early in the dispute.

Hoogstraten resigned as a director of Rarebargain before it took control of the land.

The firm was repeatedly fined for not removing the obstructions and is now in liquidation.

The council said it now intended to revoke the diversion order and was serving notices on Rarebargain's liquidators to remove the obstacles.

Bob Wilkins, the council's director of transport and environment, said: "The county council was disappointed the legal process was initiated.

"As we predicted at the time, it has cost a considerable amount and achieved nothing."

He said the council wanted to draw a line under the case and was committed to protecting its 2,000-mile rights-of-way network.

Hoogstraten was jailed for manslaughter last year for his part in the murder of rival landlord Mohammed Raja.