More than 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste could be dumped at a Sussex village.

Batteries, electrical cables, fluorescent light tubes and contaminated soil could be buried in a landfill site planned for an area close to woodland on the edge of South Chailey, near Lewes.

Lloyds Environmental Waste Management, which owns the land at Old Hamsey Brickworks, wants the first lorries carrying waste to arrive by September next year.

People in the village, once famous for its potteries, were learning of the plans today.

The area around the village is popular with walkers.

North Common Nature Reserve and Sheffield Park Gardens are nearby and the steam-powered Bluebell Railway runs by the settlement, which has remained largely unchanged for 200 years.

It is thought the children's television series Camberwick Green was inspired by the area around South Chailey and the Chailey Windmill.

There have already been protests against changes to planning conditions at Old Hamsey Brickworks.

Lewes MP Norman Baker and Lewes District Council raised concerns two years ago over the sustainability of a waste treatment plant at the site.

There have also been concerns over traffic generated by the treatment of waste.

Lloyds Environmental has now applied to East Sussex County Council for permission to construct a 2.2-hectare landfill site and a recycling plant.

It already has permission to build a sewage works on the 20-acre brownfield site, which it partly uses for offices.

The company's 12-year plan would mean 120,000 tonnes of waste being transported to the village from all over the county.

It put the proposals forward following the European Union Landfill Directive on July 16, which banned mixing hazardous waste with domestic or household rubbish.

Before the directive, the practice of mixing waste took place at landfill sites at Beddingham, near Lewes, and Pebsham, near Hastings.

There are no specialist sites to process hazardous waste in the South-East - the nearest are in Peterborough and Swindon.

There are fears the South-East could be hit by an increase in the illegal dumping of commercial waste.

A spokeswoman for Lloyds Environmental said the landfill site would handle non-reactive hazardous waste.

They would include soils from other brownfield sites contaminated with chemicals or gases, waste from the mining and quarrying process, demolition wastes and waste from the water treatment process.

In a statement, the company said: "Lloyds Environmental is not proposing to accept any other forms of hazardous waste, such as clinical, bio-degradable, flammable or corrosive waste."

The company plans to retain the woodland which covers half the site.

The second part of its proposal concerns building a materials recycling facility (MRF) on the site to process 50,000 tonnes of metal, cardboard, plastic, cans and glass per year and would create eight jobs.

Paul Segal, a director of Lloyds Environmental, said: "The issue of waste disposal is one which the whole community must address.

"While we realise people will have concerns, the amount of waste society produces means we all have a role to play in being a part of the solution as much as a part of the problem."

He said the company would listen to local residents' concerns and hold a full public consultation exercise before submitting its planning application this autumn.

Lloyds Environmental, which removes waste from organisations such as Brighton and Hove City Council, BT, Stagecoach Buses and BP, transports waste to other sites for disposal and processing.

Nationwide, about five million tonnes of hazardous waste were produced in England and Wales in 2002.

Keith Mitchell, chairman of the South East England Regional Assembly's planning committee, said: "It is disappointing that so little effective progress has been made with managing hazardous waste.

"The Government should have seen the problem coming. It now needs to encourage and help the private sector to invest in new facilities.

Mark Bennett of the Environment Agency welcomed, in principle, extra recycling capacity in the region.

But he added: "If the proposal is granted planning permission, there is a long way to go in terms of licensing and consents which are provided by the Environment Agency. Lloyds Environmental will have to go to great lengths to satisfy our requirements.