Neighbours are fighting plans to extend a huge landfill dump near a school and keep it open until 2016.

Lidsey Landfill, on the A27 two miles north of Bognor Regis, covers 107 acres which was farmland until 1990.

It is due to reach capacity by early 2006 and people living nearby hoped the land would be returned to agriculture.

Instead, operator Lidsey Landfill Ltd wants to expand the site in Lidsey Road.

It already handles 160,000 tonnes of waste every year and the expansion would put the site boundary 550 to 650 yards from Aldingbourne County Primary School.

Lidsey Landfill also wants to start exporting clay from the site which would involve more lorry traffic.

Aldingbourne school governor Ren Kitchener said the site already generated an annoying amount of traffic and noise.

He said: "If the dump is extended it will lead to a lot more heavy traffic outside the school, which would be dangerous for the children, and there would be more noise pollution.

"The number of lorries they have at the moment is quite bad but earth-moving lorries would be even worse. Expanding the landfill would interfere with outdoor activities at the school. The kids have a little nature reserve and go outside to play."

Mr Kitchener lives near the site and said he often sees rats and flies in his garden. If they came from the dump, the school would be affected too.

Eric Poole, of Lidsey Road, said he was against the expansion because of the amount of traffic it would generate. He campaigned against the waste disposal plant being built in the first place.

He said: "It is the traffic I really object to. I live three-quarters of a mile away and sometimes the traffic is backed up to outside my gate. It will only get worse if the tip is extended.

"The original plan was for the tip to be open for ten years but then it got an extension. Now they want to extend it again. I feel they will be given permission and there is nothing we can do to stop it."

At a recent planning meeting, Arun District Council objected to the extension because of the traffic.

Councillor Stephen Brookman was on the committee but voted in favour of the application. He said the company's plans for restoring the site once it was full would eventually improve the area.

He said: "Unfortunately we are running out of holes in the ground to put our waste in. Wherever we put these things in the county there will be objections."

He sympathised with people who had lost heart when the site had been given extensions allowing it to stay open but said eventually the tip would be covered over and turned back into farmland.