About 1,500 jobs could be created in Burgess Hill if plans for a £100 million business park succeed.

Agents Town Planning Consultancy have submitted an outline planning application to Mid Sussex District Council on behalf of developer Simons Estates.

They plan to start building next year on the 30-acre old sewage treatment works at Fairplace Way, Burgess Hill.

Today local councillors welcomed the scheme to bring more jobs to the town.

Burgess Hill Town Council planning chairman Tony Balsdon said: "The site is allocated for industrial use and this is obviously the first bid to develop it.

"It is welcome because it is showing confidence in Burgess Hill."

Before any building could take place, the site would have be decontaminated and declared safe because it has been used for waste treatment for about a century.

That could take until next June and the building work which follows could take five to eight years.

Mid Sussex Council spokeswoman Janine Bell said: "We have just received an application for outline planning approval.

"It is quite a vast plan and the planning officers will need time to consider it."

If the scheme is approved, firms may have to draw in workers from other areas.

Burgess Hill, like nearby Crawley, has a low unemployment rate and some local firms have spoken of a shortage of skilled workers.