Up to 1,000 jobs could be created when an eyesore on the Downs which has been derelict for ten years is transformed.

Developers plan a hotel, a restaurant and pub, housing and four office buildings at Shoreham Cement Works, at Upper Beeding, near Steyning.

Site owners Hargreaves have submitted an application to Adur and Horsham District Councils to bulldoze the derelict buildings.

A significant part of the site would be landscaped and conserved, turning a disused quarry into chalk grassland.

If the development is given the go-ahead, the transport infrastructure would be improved.

There would be no major road developments but there would be improvements to rail and bus services at Shoreham, improvements to cycleways, including crossing points, traffic light controls and a limited dual carriageway on the A283.

The development would see a major investment in the local and regional economy and up to 1,000 jobs could be created.

In the past ten years a planning application has been put forward for a ski centre but that and other ideas have not reached fruition.

The site is in the Sussex Downs area of outstanding natural beauty but an environmental study says the proposal will have less of a visual impact than the cement works.

An assessment carried out for the planning application says "very significant improvements to the quality of numerous views would be brought about."

The plant and buildings are considered by English Heritage to be of national importance but it also believes their retention is impossible.

Neighbours would be given prior warning of the chimney being pulled down and noisy building work would take place in the day.

The application has been in the offing for up to three years since Hargreaves, a Sussex-based property development company, bought the site from Blue Circle.

Christopher Boulter, a director of Hargreaves, said it would cost several million pounds just to get the site ready for development.

He said: "In the time we have owned the site we have looked at a range of proposals.

"The proposal is a mix of uses Hargreaves believes affords the most realistic prospect of satisfactory redevelopment at the site in a manner that will achieve significant landscape and ecological enhancement.

"It will also deliver a major contribution to the economic regeneration of the area."

The application includes a proposal for houses which Mr Boulter said could include a mixture of low-cost housing, apartments and larger homes.

Tony Stevens, director of planning at Horsham District Council, said: "I can only conclude the owner of the land has invested a considerable amount of time and money in putting this application forward so it is a serious application.

"It is a large and very thorough application and will need a lot of detailed investigation by this council, Adur District Council, South Downs Conservation Board, the county council, the Environment Agency and English Nature. It will be a considerable time before this reaches a committee meeting."

Vera Tickler, of the Shoreham Society, said: "We're glad something is being done but we need to look at the plans."