County faces burning issue

A warning that West Sussex could be pushed towards mass incineration has followed leaked information that the government intends to increase incineration capacity over the next 15 years.

The Horsham-based campaign group HALT believes that incineration of rubbish could be forced on the county, especially in the absence of any progress on the West Sussex local waste plan.

"There will be no independent judicial opinion to safeguard public interest and more power will be in the hands of the county planners to influence decisions and this change in government policy will give them even more power to push us towards mass incineration in West Sussex," warned Dr Geoffrey Richardson of HALT.

The BBC leaked news that ministers are preparing to back plans for a large increase in the amount of rubbish to be incinerated rather than buried. An environment paper is due out next month, said by the BBC to propose that 25 per cent of waste should be dealt with by incineration, rather than the current amount of nine per cent.