PROTESTERS have been dealt another blow in their fight to have a controversial downland waste site closed.

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, told opponents of the Halewick Lane transfer and recycling station in Sompting there was "no viable alternative" to it being used permanently.

People against its continued use say it will cause air and noise pollution and could contaminate drinking water. But West Sussex County Council wants to go on using the beauty spot site, bordering on a residential road, because of a lack of alternatives.

Mr Loughton joined about 50 environmentalists and local people to discuss the scheme at a public meeting at Boundstone Community College, Lancing.

Angry residents shouted out during his speech, which came amid growing tensions over the future of waste disposal in

Sussex.

Mr Loughton said he fully sympathised with people

living in Halewick Lane and surrounding roads, adding "nobody would like to have any form of waste disposal on their doorstep".

But he said: "Like it or not, no other viable alternative has been put up to replace Halewick Lane at this stage.

"If a viable one is found, I will go along with that at the drop of a hat.

"We have a lot of waste and we have to get rid of that waste. "If it does not go to

Halewick Lane it will have to make longer journeys elsewhere, which would mean further lorry and dustcart movements.

"The problem still has to go somewhere."

Last week hundreds of people protested outside a crunch debate on eight sites expected to handle the county's rubbish in the next century.

Councillors met at Lewes to draw up a shortlist of towns and villages for tips and incinerators, whittled down from a list of hundreds.

People living near the sites turned up to demonstrate with home-made signs and loudhailers, and councillors were confronted with a wall of noise as they arrived for the meeting.

Many residents fear permanent permission to use the Halewick Lane site could lead to it being earmarked for an incinerator.

But Mr Loughton said: "There has never been any prospect of

an incinerator on the Halewick Lane site. It is wholly inappropriate even if anybody was stupid enough to suggest it."

He said he would support moves to improve access and the use and appearance of the site.

West Sussex County Council originally said it planned to close the site when temporary planning permission runs out next May. It meets on December 15 to decide whether to extend permission.

The proposal goes before Adur District Council planners for consultation on December 6.

Adur councillor Peter Spruce, also on the Sussex Downs Conservation Board, said: "If permanent permission is to be allowed, it flies in the face of the decision to grant the South Downs national park status."

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