Campaigners packed a court room in London yesterday as battle commenced over the controversial incinerator plans.

Opposition group Dove 2000 Ltd, Newhaven Town Council and the Lewes branch of Friends of the Earth (FoE) are opposing the scheme for a waste incinerator capable of handling 242,000 tonnes of waste a year at North Quay, Newhaven.

“Court full” signs were put up outside Court Three at London’s Royal Courts of Justice even before top planning judge Mr Justice Sullivan began hearing a judicial review challenge to East Sussex County Council’s granting of planning permission for the scheme in November last year.

Barrister Richard Harwood spoke on behalf of Dove 2000 – the Defenders of the Ouse Valley and Estuary.

Mr Harwood argued that the council had decided to grant planning consent after taking into account a pollution prevention and Control permit (PPC), issued by the Environment Agency which was overturned by the High Court three weeks later.

He told the judge the legal challenge to the PPC had been mounted by Dove member Nicki Day and on December 5 last year the Environment Agency threw in the towel and agreed that it should be quashed.

Mr Harwood said that that meant the PPC did not have “any legal effect whatsoever” and, as the November planning permission was based on it, that too should be overturned.

However, lawyers for the county council and the company behind the incinerator scheme, Veolia ES South Downs Ltd, are insisting the PPC remained in force at the time planning permission was granted.

Dove, along with the town council and FoE, are also arguing that the county council failed to take regard of important local planning policies and the risk that the incinerator site might be subject to flooding .

The incinerator generated more public comments than any planning application ever considered by East Sussex County Council and were strongly opposed by residents.

More than 15,000 letters of objection were sent to the council by residents and public authorities concerned about the environmental impact.

The High Court hearing is expected to be completed today.

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