Moves to allow 24-hour opening at a vehicle repair workshop have been given a one-year trial, despite noise pollution fears.

A petition signed by 288 residents and about 20 letters objecting to an opening-hours extension were sent to Worthing Borough Council but town planners decided to give applicants Rossett Beck Group a chance.

The repair depot, at the corner of Meadow Road and Dale Road, Worthing, will have extra lorries arriving for servicing from 7am on Mondays to 6pm on Saturdays.

A demonstration was held by nearby residents outside the depot on Saturday because they did not want even more noise from the workshop and the traffic and activity generated by the site.

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, voiced concerns that some people felt they had been kept in the dark about the plans and urged the council to reject the application.

At yesterday's planning committee meeting, Worthing's development control manager James Appleton said conditions to control the noise would prevent late-night disturbances.

These included no commercial vehicles arriving after 7pm, controls on floodlighting and a statement setting out working arrangements.

Liberal Democrat Christine Brown thought the East Worthing Access Road would be the solution to complaints of noisy traffic.

The proposed access road would allow heavy traffic to bypass residential roads by providing a direct link to the A27.

Councillor Brown said: "On the map it states this little area is an industrial area but, for the residents, it is residential.

"It's not working and we should be looking at the bigger picture. The solution is to all get behind the county council to do something, like the Ewar."

Conservative Graham Fabes said, even if the building was soundproofed, air conditioning for the site would still make a noise.

He said: "How are they going to get rid of the noise in the summer?

"They will have to have a big air conditioning plant that will make more noise than the one people are already complaining about."

Temporary 12-month consent to stay open all day was granted but planning committee chairman Bob Clare urged residents, if they started suffering from noise, to notify the council well before the application had to be renewed.