A senior county councillor

today survived a no confidence vote.

Kathryn Field was under fire from East Sussex County Council's Tory opposition after last month's failure to agree waste plans drawn up with Brighton and Hove.

Coun Field has the environment brief on the authority's ruling cabinet and for most of last year chaired the joint committee working on the proposals.

Tory leader Peter Jones told councillors she had failed to

provide leadership over the controversial plans. He also attacked the ruling Lib Dem and Labour cabinet for leaving it to the full council to decide on the plans.

He said: "In that vacuum, it was doubly important for that member, the head of Transport and Environment, to give

guidance and Coun Field chose not to. She spoke as a local member."

Lib Dem council leader David Rogers said the motion was "outrageous" and Labour group leader Jeremy Birch said the

Conservatives were hounding one individual, adding: "I consider this resolution to be the resolution of a playground bully."

The motion failed by 22-18.

The plans are being drawn up by Brighton and Hove and East Sussex County Council's joint strategic advisory committee, also chaired by Coun Field.

But there was a setback last month when East Sussex county councillors rejected a draft waste plan for a series of incinerators and land raise sites across the county.

The draft waste plan, due to be published on January 21, has now been scrapped, further delaying a solution to the waste problem.

Coun Jones added: "I think the lack of direction from Mrs Field has contributed to the delays

this plan has suffered from."

Coun Field rejected the claims, saying councillors have been given plenty of opportunity to form opinions about the various proposals.

She said: "Site visits were arranged which all members were entitled to attend. Some did, some didn't but the opportunity was there.

"Cabinet decided the best place was at full council for this to be debated. Whatever the cabinet decided it would have to go before full council anyway.

"There were a lot of residents with strong opinions. What is the point of them all coming down to a cabinet meeting when the actual decision is to be taken by full council? That's not lack of leadership, that's being sensible."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.