The company behind plans to build a recycling and waste transfer site may go back to the drawing board after its proposals triggered thousands of objections.

The Argus has learned that Onyx, which wants to build a £10 million facility in Hollingdean Lane, Brighton, is having doubts about its scheme following a huge campaign by opposition group Dump the Dump.

Onyx is considering withdrawing its planning application, which it submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council in January, and replacing it with a new one which it hopes would be more acceptable to residents.

One option it is looking at would reduce the processing capacity of the plant from 200,000 tonnes of waste per year to 160,000 tonnes.

The company, which has a 25-year contract for waste management in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex, is also looking at adding an extension to the side of the recycling building at the point closest to Downs Infants School.

Brighton and Hove City Council has received 2,000 formal objections to Onyx's first planning application.

Hundreds of residents from Hollingdean have attended a series of public meetings to oppose the plan.

Dump the Dump says the proposed facility at the former abattoir site is unsuitable for an inner city area because it would create extra traffic, noise and pollution.

But the council and Onyx have warned landfill space will run out by 2008 and without the facility taxpayers will be left with a hefty bill for transporting rubbish out of the county.

Green Party councillor Keith Taylor said Onyx's rethink was a sign it was listening to the concerns of campaigners.

But he predicted that a reduction in capacity of 40,000 would not be enough to placate worried householders.

He said: "They haven't taken seriously the principal concerns over traffic and pollution and the alternative they are looking at won't amount to that much of a reduction.

"If refuse is going to be handled on the site we need a far smaller project."

Ed Stark, of Dump the Dump, said Onyx had already stated it expected the plant would handle 160,000 tonnes of waste per year so a reduction in maximum capacity from 200,000 tonnes to 160,000 would not change the amount of rubbish the company proposed to process.

Mr Stark said he feared company bosses would change their minds again once the plant was up and running.

He said: "If they have got the land spare to process 200,000 tonnes then they would want to use that capacity. They can always apply to make it bigger."

A spokeswoman for Onyx said: "Onyx is currently considering various design modifications to the Hollingdean planning application following the consultation process.

"Should some of these modifications be incorporated they would require the planning application to be resubmitted.

"No formal decision has been made."