Residents are furious with a firm which transports green waste from across the South East to their quiet village.

KPS Composting Services has applied for permission to quadruple the number of lorries travelling to and from its premises in Lewes Road in Isfield, near Uckfield.

The company takes green waste from councils, building contractors, waste management companies, site clearance firms, estate managers and farmers and turns it into compost.

It is then used by farmers to help produce organic crops.

Currently the company has a licence for 25 trips a week to the site using eight-wheel lorries or refuse trucks.

But Steve Usher, manager of KPS, says the firm is already carrying out up to 150 trips each week to keep up with demand.

The company has now submitted an application to Wealden District Council to allow even more lorry journeys to the site.

Mr Usher said: "This is almost a retrospective application because at the moment we're using about 100 to 150 journeys a week because of the volume of the waste coming to the site."

If passed, the application would allow up to 260 journeys a week to and from the plant along the narrow country lanes.

But villagers are already angry at the firm's operations.

Isfield Parish Council has objected twice to the previously submitted plans and said the heavy trucks not only presented a danger but that unsightly mounds of compost were building up at the site.

About 559 people live in the village.

Parish councillor Jim Smith said: "They want to drive these vehicles up and down our bus route but this is a narrow road.

The whole idea is insane.

"The waste is coming in from all over the place and now they want to quadruple the amount.

"I'm all for stopping rubbish going to landfill but we're all fearful of the number and size of the vehicles using the road."

The plant was opened in 2001 and serves Sussex, Kent and parts of Surrey.

The site recycled 35,000 tonnes of green waste last year, a figure expected to rise to about 40,000 tonnes this year.

Campaigners say the plant was built on a flood plain and claim it could pollute drinking water. But Mr Usher said: "The amount of waste local councils are recycling is much higher than when we started in 2001.

"We're not on the flood plain and the drainage is sealed so no liquids leave the site.

"We're helping local farms by supplying them with compost so they don't have to use chemical alternatives. The villagers use the site free of charge."

The application will be discussed by Wealden District Council on Thursday, March 6.

andy.dickenson @theargus.co.uk

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