No planning application has yet been submitted for the incinerator

A government planning inspector has said the site in Newhaven would be suitable for an incinerator.

Hundreds of residents have protested against the scheme, claiming the plant could affect the health of people living nearby and the environment.

No planning application has yet been lodged for permission to build the incinerator at North Quay in Newhaven.

The game's not over, I intend to fight this all the way and I think all the community will do Norman Baker MP

A lengthy public inquiry into East Sussex's waste and recycling plans took place last year.

The government inspector's report, which followed that inquiry, rejected a second proposed site at Mountfield, neat Battle - a more rural area than Newhaven.

But it approved in principal the North Quay site.

Waste firm Onyx Aurora was given a �1bn contract last year to dispose of all household waste in East Sussex for the next 25 years.

When it was given the contract it proposed building the incinerator at Newhaven by 2009 and the firm could now submit a planning application for the plant.

Campaigners against the scheme said they would continue their fight.

Local Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: "The game's not over, I intend to fight this all the way and I think all the community will do.

"There's a planning application to come in due course and we will fight that tooth and nail to try to ensure that this blight on Newhaven doesn't materialise."