County faces burning issue

The Horsham-based campaign group HALT believes that incineration of rubbish could be forced on the county, especially in the absence of any progress on the West Sussex local waste plan.

"There will be no independent judicial opinion to safeguard public interest and more power will be in the hands of the county planners to influence decisions and this change in government policy will give them even more power to push us towards mass incineration in West Sussex," warned Dr Geoffrey Richardson of HALT.

The BBC leaked news that ministers are preparing to back plans for a large increase in the amount of rubbish to be incinerated rather than buried. An environment paper is due out next month, said by the BBC to propose that 25 per cent of waste should be dealt with by incineration, rather than the current amount of nine per cent.

HALT believes that the proposals will almost certainly bring back plans to build an incinerator to serve West Sussex on the site of the Warnham brickworks, as well as the prospect of another at Capel brickworks to serve the Surrey area.

Dr Geoffrey Richardson issued a statement on behalf of HALT last week, saying: "HALT is appalled by the leaked Government report stating that it intends to increase incineration capacity to 25 per cent over the next 15 years.

"At least they are now calling mass burning of waste by its proper name '“ incineration, instead of hiding behind the term 'energy from waste'.

"Whatever the process is called, these plants burn materials, most of which could be recycled. Once burnt they are lost forever and future generations will not forgive us."

He said that if Warnham was turned into an incineration site for West Sussex, it would lead to more heavy traffic and road pollution, while there were real fears about the toxic effect of resulting dioxins on the population in a wide area.

Other HALT campaigners warned that the 'fall'“out' from incineration would blight the countryside for many miles around and there were implications for agriculture.

West Sussex is currently faced with the task of finding a home for 460,000 tonnes of waste collected each year by district and borough councils, together with waste at its household waste sites.