People living near proposed incinerator sites in Sussex are to be offered visits to working plants elsewhere in the UK.

The idea was put forward as councils named the two companies they want to bid for the multi-million pound waste disposal contract.

The two firms, Viridor and Onyx, will now draw up detailed proposals for the £25 million-a-year deal which councillors were told was certain to include incinerators.

Yesterday, East Sussex county councillors confirmed North Quay, Newhaven, as one of its two preferred sites for a burner.

The council's ruling Cabinet recommended Mountfield Mine, near Robertsbridge, as the site for a second burner, despite warnings from officials it was unsuitable.

The council has faced a barrage of criticism about incinerators during a consultation on the plans, being drawn up jointly with Brighton and Hove City Council.

More than 13,000 people objected to the proposals and the majority were opposed to burners.

Council leader Peter Jones said medical evidence suggested incineration was safe and the council should provide people near the two sites with as much information as possible.

Pledging to organise visits to working incinerators, he said: "It is important that we look not only at the incinerator and how it works and talk to the people who run it but go and talk to the people in the community who live around it.

"This administration will be trying to engage with local people who might be affected."

Among the candidates he mentioned for possible visits was Tyseley, in Birmingham, which in 1999 the Environment Agency said was among the most polluting industrial plants in the UK.

Newhaven MP Norman Baker attacked the visits initiative and said: "If they have decided to build an incinerator whatever happens then what is the point of the visits?

"If they have got money to burn they should be spending it ensuring as much waste as possible is recycled instead of organising trips around the country."

The Cabinet also agreed yesterday to increase recycling targets for household waste in the next draft of the plans to 40 per cent by 2015, up from 33 per cent.

Councillors ruled out land-raising at Veal's Farm, in the Low Weald, and re-iterated their opposition to dumping waste on greenfield sites.

They also ordered a study of siting a sewage works alongside an incinerator at North Quay.

Opposition leader David Rogers, who represents Newhaven, said as many as 10,000 of the people who responded during the consultation had objected to a burner at Newhaven.

He said: "People in Newhaven are absolutely fed up with being treated as the waste site for a whole part of East Sussex."

The two shortlisted companies were announced yesterday after a joint waste committee meeting of the two councils.

Brighton and Hove City Council leader Ken Bodfish said the two firms had been chosen because they had the most credible recycling targets and were flexible enough to make changes during the 20-year lifetime of the contract.

He said: "Recycling targets are crucial to us and also a company with a sound performance and financial track record.

"This is a huge project in public money terms for a long period of time. We have to try to make sure we have the best deal."

Onyx, which is French-owned, has the contract for refuse collection in Hastings. Viridor operates the Beddingham landfill site and has spent £2 million via the controversial landfill tax credit system in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove.

The two companies not on the final shortlist, Sita and the Waste Recycling Group, will be on standby in case either of the other two drop out.

The successful bidder is expected to sign the multi-million pound deal in March or April next year.

A second draft of the waste plans, which underpin the contract, is unlikely to be published for more consultations before early next year and must go before a public inquiry before being adopted.