The new Norman conquest in Sussex will be highly welcome if it succeeds in reviving year-round ferry services from Newhaven to Dieppe.

However, the French authorities keen on buying Newhaven Harbour need a little encouragement from the English side if they are to proceed with their bold bid.

That's why the Newhaven Economic Partnership is offering a grant of £380,000 towards the cost of the project.

It's a pity it's insisting plans for a waste incinerator on the north quay be scrapped as part of the deal.

This is a form of blackmail which, if approved, will have an effect not on the French but on the whole of East Sussex.

It's proving tremendously difficult to find a site for disposing of waste from the west of East Sussex. Newhaven is probably the best of a bad bunch.

Newhaven has every right to protest but this is a backdoor method of preventing the scheme from going ahead, which could destroy the whole waste plan for the county.

If that happens there will be nowhere in the area to dispose of most of the rubbish, which will be far worse for Newhaven than an incinerator.