A headteacher said today she had considered resigning after a council voted to permit a rubbish transfer station which will overshadow her school.

Campaigners have vowed to take their fight against plans for the dump, just metres from their children's school, all the way to Europe.

Brighton and Hove City Council's planning sub-committee approved Veolia Environmental Services' proposal for the massive waste station in Hollingdean Lane, Brighton, at a packed meeting on Monday.

Headteacher Regine Kruger says she has considered resigning over the proposals and fears parents will now take their children out of Downs Infant School, in Ditchling Road, Brighton.

She said: "Parents and staff are very disappointed and just cannot believe our own council can be so misguided.

"There's a real feeling this decision was made some time ago and they had already made up their minds. People here feel the children have been sacrificed for the greater good.

"I feel very ashamed to work for this council. The only way I can sleep at night is if I feel I am working for thegovernors of this school, for the parents and the children, not the council.

"The governors have worked very hard to make this an excellent school and we are overwhelmed with pupils wanting to come here.

"I can foresee a time where people do start to withdraw their children. I don't know how I will be able to hold my head up and say it's a lovely school when this nightmare thing will be behind it.

"I have seriously considered resigning but that would not help anyone. I wanted to show my strength of feeling but it would be letting down the parents and the children, not the council.

"The best option is to take this to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. We will absolutely take this to the bitter end and explore every avenue that we can."

Protesters who say the transfer station and recycling facility will bring increased traffic, pollution and health risks have no direct right of appeal to the council.

But they are taking legal advice on appealing to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister or to the European Court of Human Rights.

Veolia can now begin building the £10 million facility, which will handle up to 200,000 tonnes of waste daily, at the former abattoir.

School pupils joined their parents and other members of the Dump the Dump campaign group at a demonstration outside the meeting at Hove Town Hall on Monday.

Dump the Dump member Sandra Staufer has a ten-year-old son Njoku who attends Downs Junior School but has decided not to send her three-year-old daughter Nenna to the Infants School.

She said: "We had to move away because my son couldn't sleep because of the traffic.

"There were 25 HGVs passing every morning just because of the Cityclean service, which was moved there in anticipation of this scheme.

"I feel so betrayed by the council. We are hardworking parents trying our best for our children and then they do this over our heads."

It is estimated there will be 33 return trips of 44-tonne lorries a day out of the site, which is six trips every hour past homes and the schools.

Ms Staufer said: "We are deeply disappointed that our councillors failed to appreciate how this proposal will impact on our community.

"They have put commercial interest and petty politics before the real needs of the community and we can promise this will have consequences for all parties at the ballot box across Brighton and Hove."

Fellow campaigner Ed Start said: "We are also dismayed the local education authority has failed in its duty of care to our children, who will bear the brunt of this monstrous development, due to its proximity to two large schools. We have lost this particular battle but we haven't lost the war yet."

Rachel Attwell, chair of governors at Downs Infant School, said: "This is not necessarily the end of it. We have a duty to safeguard the health and welfare of our children and we will continue to do so."

David Lepper, Labour MP for Brighton Pavilion, called on Veolia to rethink the Hollingdean waste plan.

He said: "No one with any degree of common sense or concern for public safety and the environment could endorse the proposals which would mean over 60 movements a day by these vehicles using the already congested Vogue Gyratory system.

"The city's waste facility at Hollingdean was on the edge of the urban area when it opened 120 years ago. That location is now densely residential. It's time a new site was found."

Mr Lepper is talking to campaigners about the possibility of having the application called in by the Government Office for the South-East for a public inquiry.

A council spokeswoman said: "This facility won't in any way be the large rubbish tip that some people seem to fear. All the work will be done indoors in buildings which are specially designed to limit noise, odour and dust.

"I know Hollingdean residents have concerns and these are issues which have been thoroughly investigated.

"It's not in the council's interest to put anybody's health at risk."