Junior posties from two schools are to deliver a sack-load of letters opposing plans for a giant waste dump on their doorstep.

Waste contractor Onyx, now Veolia Environmental Services, submitted a revised application to Brighton and Hove City Council last month seeking permission for a materials recovery facility and waste transfer site in Hollingdean Lane, Brighton.

The original plan, submitted in January 2005, met a groundswell of opposition.

Veolia has made a number of changes and people opposing the plan have to make fresh representations.

These have to be submitted to the council by April 19, the day the two schools next to the proposed site - Downs Infants and Downs Juniors in Ditchling Road - re-open following the Easter holidays.

Campaigners say the 21 days given to submit objections is too short - and the timing is viewed by some protesters as a "conspiracy" to limit the opposition.

On the first day back at school, Dump The Dump protesters will provide facilities for objectors to sign letters and take them to Brighton Town Hall via a children's protest parade at the end of lessons.

Dump The Dump members say formal letters of notification, which the council has a legal obligation to send, were only received last week, despite being dated March 29.

A spokesman for Dump The Dump said: "These letters have only just been received by residents, thereby considerably reducing the 21 days available to review the application and to get letters of objection to the council.

"In addition to the concerns of residents, the two schools are closed for the Easter holidays, meaning school governors have no chance to consider their response to the application.

"School governors have a statutory responsibility for the health and safety of all those who use the schools but their opportunity to give a considered response has been denied.

"Protesters sense a conspiracy to minimise the numbers of objectors' letters."

A council spokesman said: "The letters were sent out on March 30 and there is information from the Post Office that they were received around April 3. The plans were also advertised in The Argus and in the Leader as early as possible."