Tickets or passes may be needed in future for big outdoor seaside events after problems at the summer's Fatboy Slim beach gig.

In July more than 240,000 people attended the Big Beach Boutique II concert in Brighton.

Brighton and Hove City Council is now considering ways to avoid a repeat of the resulting congestion, which strained emergency services to the limit.

A report to councillors by culture director Sarah Tanburn said: "One approach would be to fence off the event site and make access by ticket only."

This could cause problems by restricting access for people to other parts of the city and people without tickets might still try to gain entry.

However, Ms Tanburn said Brighton and Hove was already in contact with other cities which used these tactics.

She said the concert was an exceptional event and generally it was a huge success but some people were frightened by being in such a big crowd.

The organisers estimated there would be 60,000 there compared with 35,000 for a similar event in 2001 but Ms Tanburn said: "Everyone got it wrong."

Ms Tanburn said most injuries at the event were minor. Nurse Karen Manders, 25, fell 20ft from railings to her death but that happened three hours after the event had finished.

There were problems with people trying to leave Brighton by train and more efforts were needed to stagger people's departures.

Another plan could be to limit the amount of publicity about popular events.

Mrs Tanburn said generally organisers coped well despite the huge numbers but that lessons were being learned for future events.