Planning applications will be made for Hollingdean and Newhaven

East Sussex County Council's cabinet gave it the green light on Tuesday.

Opponents fear the plan could now pave the way for an incinerator in Newhaven and a waste treatment plant at Hollingdean to be built.

But the council says the plan "neither recommends nor excludes incineration as a final treatment option".

'Toxic residue'

Protesters from the Brighton, Hove and Mid-Sussex branches of Friends of the Earth, members of Dump the Dump and Defenders of the Ouse Valley (Dove) have held a number of protests in the run up to the decision.

They insisted they would continue their fight against the waste plan to try to reduce the likelihood of the Newhaven and Hollingdean developments going ahead.

Objections have been raised to incineration being used as a method of waste management.

"Rubbish doesn't disappear if you burn it or bury it.

"If you burn it you produce a huge amount of carbon dioxide you are also producing toxins and are left with a toxic residue which you still have to get rid of," said Andy Bishop from Dove.

But Cllr Matthew Lock insisted that more toxins were released into the sky on Bonfire Night than are produced from an incinerator in a whole year.

East Sussex County Council's cabinet was advised to adopt the Waste Local Plan after Brighton and Hove Council accepted it last Thursday.