Controversial council waste plans are set to be delayed by at least six months because of the number of complaints.

About 50,000 comments were made during a consultation exercise last autumn, almost a record for any planning policy drawn up by an English local authority.

The two councils behind the plans, East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council, now expect a public inquiry into the plans to be delayed until the summer of 2002.

They had expected the inquiry to begin this autumn, a date that had already slipped behind the original schedule because of a nine-month dispute between the two councils.

The county council's ruling Cabinet will be told on Tuesday the consultation was dominated by complaints about building incinerators at North Quay, Newhaven, and Mountfield Mine, near Robertsbridge.

About 90 per cent of all comments received were opposed to building burners at either site. Many objectors said there was no need for incinerators if the two councils pushed for higher recycling targets. They also said pollution from the stacks could be a health risk.

Proposals to build burners anywhere in East Sussex or Brighton and Hove have sparked angry protests since the plans were unveiled in 1998. The plans were almost derailed in 1999 when county councillors rejected building an incinerator in Newhaven, saying one should be built in Brighton and Hove instead.

It was not until last September that county councillors finally buckled and opted for North Quay as the site to burn rubbish from Brighton and Hove and the western half of East Sussex.

The consultation also drew complaints that sites originally earmarked for incinerators should not have been omitted from the plan.

Many called for recycling targets to be set higher. The plans call for a third of household waste to be recycled, in line with the Government's national waste strategy.

A revised draft of the plan incorporating the comments is expected to be published prior to further consultation in November. The plan is now unlikely to be adopted before the summer of 2003.