A waste plant which was ordered to be shut down may continue operating for another four years.

People living near the site, at Halewick Lane, Sompting, celebrated victory 12 months ago when John Prescott ordered West Sussex County Council to close the site.

They said the council had broken a long-standing promise to shut the 50-year-old centre when it voted to keep open and expand the waste transfer plant.

They fought a long battle to overturn the decision and won a public inquiry, whose findings were subsequently upheld by Mr Prescott.

But the council has now sparked renewed anger by proposing to give itself planning permission to operate the plant, where rubbish is sorted before being sent elsewhere, until late 2006.

Dan Raymond, of the Highview Residents' Association, said people who lived in the area were fed up with 40-tonne lorries going up the narrow road to the site.

He said: "We have been struggling with it for years and years and are a bit suspicious of the council's motives because of what has gone on before."

Sompting parish councillor Martin Horner said the county council should identify an alternative site and let residents know when the Halewick Lane plant, at a former landfill site, would close.

He said: "They really are trying to drag it out.

"Reading between the lines, it looks like they want to stay and keep going on and on up there."

The original vote to keep the plant open was bitterly opposed by conservation groups, who said it should not be allowed to continue operating inside the Sussex Downs area of outstanding natural beauty.

The Sussex Downs Conservation Board's planning committee has voted to tell the council the complex should be closed within two years.

Vice-chairman Paul Millmore said: "Four years is pushing it a bit and we have told the council so.

"We also told them to clear up the site when they leave rather than put it on the market, which is what we think they want to do."

Following the public inquiry, the planning inspector said there were alternatives sites but no overnight solutions and the plant would need to stay open for a few more years.

A county council spokeswoman said the authority was consulting with residents about the new proposal.

She said: "We have submitted a planning application for temporary permission up to December 31, 2006.

"This would enable the site to continue until alternative sites can be found and developed."

County council leader Harold Hall said it would take another four years to find an alternative site for the Halewick Lane plant but it would close.

In the meantime, the council would be a good neighbour. Mr Hall pointed out the number of vehicles using the plant had been drastically cut in the past six months.

He said: "We have made it abundantly clear the target date is 2006 for the facility to be located elsewhere and that will be incumbent on the new contractor just as it is upon ourselves."