RESIDENTS are ready to kick up a stink against plans to turn green fields into a waste treatment site which is like “something from a sci-fi film”.

Homeowners are strongly opposed to a £12 million food waste generator at Hangleton Bottom in Hove, claiming the plans will cause nuisance noise, smell and congestion and attract rats.

Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-operative (BHESCo) hopes to open the country’s first community-owned biogas manufacturing plant by June next year.

The co-op’s chief executive Kayla Ente said the scheme had the community’s best interests at heart and that “people won’t even notice it is there”.

She said it was much more attractive than alternatives that could be built on the brownfield site.

Mrs Ente said: “Some people get it right away and some just think what they want to think regardless of what we tell them but we’re hoping we can win over the local community.

“We have their best interests, we want to use the site for the good of the community. There are a lot of other things that could happen at a waste site.

“Because you cannot see, hear or smell it, people won’t even notice it is there.”

The site, close to the A27, is set to be confirmed as one of 18 in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove deemed suitable for new waste sites to meet growing demand.

The East Sussex, South Downs and Brighton and Hove Waste and Minerals Sites plan is going through the final stages of council approval after being given the thumbs up by the Planning Inspectorate.

Conservative councillor Tony Janio failed in a last-minute bid to have Hangleton Bottom removed from the plan at a council meeting last week, claiming the site was unsuitable.

Labour councillors accused him of throwing into jeopardy a three-year process selecting and consulting on sites.

Resident Valerie Axcell said Hangleton Bottom was not suitable, claiming local roads would not cope with a “continuous stream of lorries” and called for the waste site to be relocated to rural East Sussex.

The 77-year-old said: “It looks like something out of a sci-fi film.

“Anything like that should be in an area of open countryside not in a built-up area. It does seem crazy to put it there.

“Everybody was fiercely against at the public meeting, I don’t think there was one person out of a room of 40 in favour.”

Hangleton and Knoll councillor Dawn Barnett said it would be better suited for housing.

She said: “It is absolutely bonkers to put it among all those houses,

“It would take no time at all to get a large petition against the plans.”

YEARS OF WORK AND DEBATE COULD STILL COME TO NOTHING

PLANNING disputes can stir the emotions among residents at the best of times but those involving waste sites ratchet up the stakes that much higher.

The Newhaven Incinerator still has the capability of bringing some residents out in hives more than a decade on.

So it comes as no surprise that trying to establish 18 potential locations for new waste sites is a long and drawn-out process and so it has proved.

Even after three years of painstaking work and consulting, the plans were almost reduced to nothing just last week after an attempted 11th hour intervention by Conservative city councillor Tony Janio to have Hangleton Bottom removed.

The future of the green fields off the A293 Hangleton Link Road has been uncertain for years and a planned waste station is a case of déjà vu all over again for residents after similar proposals were mooted in 2008.

In fact the prospect of the green fields being turned to a waste site have hung over Hangleton Bottom for more than 20 years.

As one of three sites listed as where waste management development will be permitted, Hangleton Bottom appears one of the more likely of the 18 sites to be developed first, along with the Old Factory off the A22 at Lower Dicker and the Hailsham Pumping Station.

But that does not mean that residents need to start hammering the for sale signs into their front gardens just yet.

Just by being on the plan is no guarantee of a waste site being built and certainly not imminently.

The plan is designed to help local authorities plan ahead to meet the county’s needs and help reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill to two per cent by 2026.

In the plan’s own words, the size of the shortfalls in recycling and waste facilities are “not great” and in reality only a few new strategic sites are required.

That means by 2026/27, the 18 sites could be used to deliver between two and 11 smaller recycling sites, capable of handling up to 15,000 tonnes a year, and one to three larger sites, capable of recycling up to 50,000 tonnes, Between two and four smaller and one or two larger waste stations will also be needed.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: “Inclusion in the Waste and Minerals Sites Plan does not mean that any of the sites included will definitely be developed for waste management and the council itself will not be bringing forward development plans for any of the sites.

“Not all the sites in the plan will be required. Hangleton Bottom has already been allocated as a waste site for over 10 years through the previous waste plan but no proposal for development has come forward.”

Residents unhappy with waste site proposals will still get another chance to have their say as any development still has to go through planning.

The greater uncertainty for residents over the question of what kind of development might be proposed as the term waste site is pretty wide ranging.

Neighbours to permitted sites might soon have a materials recovery facility where recyclable materials are sorted, in-vessel composting where garden clippings and food are left to rot or thermal treatment plants where an incinerator burns waste at high temperatures.

All processes will impact on nearby residents in a different way.

To paraphrase the bosses at Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-operative proposing a community-orientated and very green food waste project, sometimes it’s a case of better the devil you know.

£12M PROJECT TO BE FIRST IN UK

AN ENERGY co-op is hoping to make history and build the country’s first community owned biogas manufacturing plant.

Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-operative (BHESCo) hopes to open the £12 million plant at Hangleton Bottom as early as June next year.

The firm hopes to submit plans within six to nine months for the biomethane food waste generator capable of burning up to 50,000 tonnes of food thrown away each year by the city’s hotels and restaurants.

The site would also include greenhouses to teach horticulture and be used for mental health therapy projects while grazing horses at Hangleton Bottom would be allowed to remain.

BHESCo chief executive Kayla Ente said processing at the plant happened underground and residents would not be affected by its smell, noise or really notice its presence as it would be shielded by the lie of the land and newly planted trees.

The partnership has been in discussion with Brighton and Hove City Council’s CityClean about using food waste from 360 events held annually in the city and other local authorities such as Worthing and Adur councils which currently offer a food waste collection service.

Such a scheme has previously been rejected in Brighton and Hove on the grounds of its £1 million start-up costs but Mrs Ente said it would be “fantastic” if the council were willing to work on providing a home collection service.

She said: “The beauty of this project is we expect the surplus will heat 25,000 homes and we will be able to offer a low tariff for people suffering from fuel poverty.

“We believe this can have a revolutionary impact. Electricity can be produced through wind and sun but it is really difficult at the moment to provide gas without burning fossil fuels.

“Planning is the next stage and is essential to raise the necessary finances. It is not a very easy project in terms of raising the finance but we already have some very interested commercial partners.”