A HASSOCKS business is busy installing a new state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant at a cost of more than £100,000, just to cope with the huge increase in trade over the last two years.

The new plant at family-run South Downs Nurseries, which is 12 metres long and more than three metres high, can hold almost 90,000 litres of waste and dwarfs the existing one with a capacity of only 9,000 litres.

Steve Parsons, manager of the Brighton Road garden centre, said: “We had two options, either ask our customers to take their waste home with them, or invest a huge amount of money in a new treatment plant.

“It was a no brainer really!"