A village has risen up against plans for a compost waste site because it would be too smelly, attract vermin and destroy the peace and quiet of their rural home.

More than 80 per cent of the tiny hamlet of Poling, near Arundel, have signed a petition in protest to proposals for the former Blue Mushroom farm in Arundel Road.

There have been around 100 letters of objection and a group calling itself PACT - Poling Against the Composter - was especially formed to fight the campaign.

Developer Vinery Management want to knock down all the buildings on the 2.5 hectare site, originally a vinery, and replace it with a centre for disposing 40,000 tonnes a year of green and food waste, such as vegetable peelings from canteens.

It said the facility was needed to reduce landfill waste in the region and it had already been given permission to turn the site into a compost centre, but needed renewed approval for amended plans.

But the residents of Poling, which has only 200 residents and 80 households, are determined to fight the proposals which will go before West Sussex County Council's planners for a final decision on Tuesday June 12.

Although they were rejected by Poling Parish Council and Arun District Council, the centre was recommended for approval by the county's officers.

Protesters said they were concerned about the smell of rotting vegetables, the increased traffic along the peaceful road and the impact an industrial four-storey building the size of two football pitches would have.

There were also concerns about the rats and vermin which could be attracted by the decaying food, the noise from the fans intended to dispel the smell and the effect the nasty pong would have on the young patients at the Chestnut Tree Hospice nearby.

Peter Laverick, of North Barns, Poling said: "It is a massive operation which they plan to put bang in the middle of an area of outstanding natural beauty.

"The smell, the vermin, the appearance - it is all wrong, all a monstrous, stupid and ignorant thing to do.

"You can't put a 30ft high thing like that somewhere as pretty as this. The traffic it will cause will be so bad we won't be able to get out of our own road."

Lorraine Read, of Fair Place, Poling has been one of the driving forces behind PACT. She said: "We are only a small village but we have a strong community.

"This is a threat to us and we intend to fight it."

Paul Aires, speaking on behalf of Vinery Management, said: "We are talking about building something which has already got planning approval.

"There will not be any smells because everything will be done inside and there will be a bio-filter to make sure any odours are contained.

"It is a big building but no more than a normal agricultural building and at the end of the day sites just need to be found for this sort of facility.

"We have to deal with waste, we can't keep putting it in landfill."

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