Inquiry starts over incinerator

Strong objections were lodged against the incinerator plans

A public inquiry is getting under way to decide whether land needed to build a waste incinerator in East Sussex can be bought by compulsory purchase.

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) gave planning approval for the plant, at North Quay, Newhaven last week.

Objectors to the scheme are among those scheduled to speak at the 10-day inquiry into the ESCC compulsory purchase order (CPO) in Lewes.

ESCC said the incinerator would produce enough electricity for 16,500 homes.

Industrial land

"Instead of digging up fossil fuels to run power stations we will be generating electricity that can be sold to the national grid," said councillor Matthew Lock.

"It is part of a much bigger picture including recycling and reducing the amount of waste."

He said waste company Veolia would run the plant, due to be built on industrial land, in the £1bn 25-year proposal.

Plans for the incinerator sparked huge local protests, with the council receiving 15,000 written objections from opponents.

Defenders of the Ouse Valley and Estuary (Dove) have never accepted the need for an incinerator.

"We consider there are alternative methods of dealing with the waste," said spokesman Andy Bishop.

He said advances in technology meant that new landfill sites could be opened which did not leach toxins into the soil.

"Saying 'don't worry we'll burn the waste' is a very simplistic and quite lazy way of going about things," he said.