One of the worst planning decisions made in Sussex - and there are plenty of contenders - was to refuse planning permission for a sewage plant at Portobello, near Telscombe Cliffs.

The decision was welcomed with jubilation at the time but there will be few cheers next year once the full implications are realised.

Make no mistake, there will have to be some sort of modern plant to deal with the millions of gallons of waste water produced every day by the people in Brighton and Hove and the sooner it is built the better.

Already, the city is the only resort on the South Coast where untreated sewage runs out to sea.

There has been an outfall at Portobello for more than a century and the giant sewer built below Brighton, a tremendous feat of Victorian engineering, runs towards it. The works were upgraded and a longer outfall built 25 years ago without complaint.

When Southern Water first proposed the new plant at Portobello a few years ago, there was surprisingly little opposition and even that arch critic, the late Tory councillor Robin Allen, initially welcomed it with his only reservation being the level of treatment.

Then protests began to mount and the disadvantages of Portobello were pressed relentlessly forward with politicians of all parties on the attack.

Southern Water had not expected such a storm of protest after the quiet start and in retrospect could have handled it better.

In particular, it could have designed a plant more in keeping with the area instead of looking bleakly industrial. But it lost and the company has to look for other solutions.

This time, it knows if there was a battle over Portobello, it will be nothing compared with the outrage there will be if Ovingdean is chosen. This is an even more exposed downland site and there are plenty of posh, articulate people prepared to mount a sustained campaign against it.

It is easy to find faults with the other sites put forward for consideration. Shoreham Harbour is too expensive, Black Rock is earmarked for leisure and Peacehaven is too residential. There was a long-standing promises to keep Sheepcote Valley green and Newhaven does not want to be a dumping ground for all the city's liquid as well as solid waste.

The Portobello saga was bedevilled by politics as much of it took place in the run up to the 2001 general election. Unfortunately, the current row will take place before crucial local elections. But the councillors simply can't reject every option, or push them into neighbouring territory.

Frankly, I don't know what all the fuss is about. I live near Shoreham Harbour and if the technical and financial problems could be overcome, I'd be happy for the plant to be there. In fact, there already is a plant at the Southwick end of the harbour that causes no problems at all.

Isn't it odd that Southern Water has been able to find sites for other sewage plants all over the south, including beautiful areas like the Isle of Wight, and yet has become mired in opposition for Brighton and Hove? No doubt these same objectors will moan in the summer about the quality of bathing water.

Portobello would have cost £60 million. Any new site will cost three or four times more and will be less suitable. We will all be paying for that costly error through our water bills in future.

The irony is, whatever happens, a new construction will be needed at Portobello. No site is ideal but we will all learn to our cost now that the one site that cannot be chosen is the best of a bad bunch.