Under proposals now with government for approval, the county, including Brighton and Hove, would be forced to take 2.2 million tonnes of residual waste for landfilling from the capital by 2025.

Councillor Matthew Lock, East Sussex County Council's lead Cabinet member for transport and environment, laid out seven reasons why the proposal, which is contained in the South East Plan, was unacceptable at a meeting of the council's Cabinet:

>> The county council strongly supports the waste hierarchy of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle — London needs to show it is dealing with its own waste.

>> Historically East Sussex has not accommodated London's waste.

>> It would be difficult to provide sustainable transport of the waste from London.

>> East Sussex does not have adequate transport infrastructure to accommodate this extra traffic.

>> Two thirds of East Sussex is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and accommodating facilities in an environmentally sustainable manner even to deal with the county's waste is very challenging.

>> East Sussex does not have a supply of voids (holes in the ground), such as former minerals workings, to accommodate landfilling.

>> If capacity could be made available and it was not actually used for London's waste, it would encourage more waste to be landfilled, which is the least preferred method of treatment in the waste hierarchy.

He made the points as Cabinet was agreeing to a consultation on proposals for various methods of disposing of waste over the coming years.

After the meeting, Cllr Lock said, "While we are looking at all the issues and options for dealing with waste and minerals in the future, we are also being forced to worry about waste from outside under this proposal in the South East Plan.

"This is a proposal that we have opposed at every opportunity and one we will continue to oppose.

"East Sussex has not one inch of motorway and less than 12 miles of dual carriageway.

"More than two thirds of the county is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and so we simply don't have the space or the rail or road infrastructure for millions of tonnes of rubbish to be driven from the capital and dumped here.

"I want people to be clear that, although we have to plan for this allocation of waste, we will continue to fight it."

The Cabinet agreed the Waste and Minerals Development Framework Issues and Options consultation document can now go out to public consultation.