Fears have been raised that public services will be stretched to their limit because of a predicted population boom.

More than 220,000 extra people will be living in Sussex within the next 23 years, according to figures released yesterday.

The Office for National Statistics says the number of people in East Sussex will increase by 14.3 per cent to 567,900.

West Sussex will have another 101,000 residents, an increase of 13.2 per cent.

Henry Smith, leader of West Sussex County Council, was worried about the predicted growth and said the county would struggle to cope.

He said: "These are long-term figures but, nevertheless, it would be a concern if that number of people were to live in West Sussex. We would need to be able to upgrade services rather than downsizing them all the time, which is what seems to be happening at the moment.

"The Government would need to start giving us more help in being able to cope with such a large increase and make sure everyone is properly provided for."

Coun Smith said the council was under-funded by central Government and the county was already having difficulty with health care, water provision and traffic congestion. He said possible hospital closures and downgrades in Worthing, Shoreham and Crawley were an example of how vital services were threatened.

Up to 96,000 new houses could be built in West Sussex over the next 20 years.

Coun Smith said: "There are currently 40,000 homes in Worthing and Crawley, so the number of houses would be like getting another two towns of that size.

"This means more building and a threat to our environment. This region is one of the most successful in the world but the Government has to be careful that it is not a case of killing the goose that laid the golden egg because people won't want to live here if the quality of life becomes so bad."

Peter Jones, leader of East Sussex County Council, agreed more funding was needed to cope with such a high increase of people.

He said: "We will need significant investment into our infrastructure to be able to deal with those numbers.

"At the moment we are not getting the money we need and we have one of the worst financial settlements in the country."

Coun Jones thought between 25,000 and 30,000 new homes would be needed for the extra 71,000 people.

He said East Sussex could cope with an extra 1,000 houses being built a year but added there was not much space for mass developments because two thirds of the county were designated Areas of Natural Outstanding Beauty.