Hangleton Bottom will be officially listed as a potential “waste management” site despite a last-ditch stand by a local councillor.
Councillor Tony Janio said: “Hangleton Bottom is simply unsuitable for any form of waste transfer or waste processing site. That area has been under threat for many, many years.”
The vacant site, next to the A27 Brighton bypass and the A293 link road, was last formally used during the building of the bypass in the early 1990s.
But the Conservative councillor was accused of playing politics as he tried to remove it from a list of potential sites for dealing with rubbish and recycling.
He spoke out at a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting at Hove Town Hall yesterday evening (Thursday 19 January).
He had concerns about a possible plan to build an anaerobic digester there and said that they should be kept as far from homes and population centres as possible. He had worries about traffic and potentially hazardous gases.
Labour councillor Gill Mitchell, the deputy leader of the council, said: “I am finding this quite astonishing. We are now seeing politics being played at this late stage with this report.
“This plan has been three years in the making and it has gone through extensive rounds of consultation.”
An independent official planning inspector had found it compliant with the law and sound, she said, adding that it other local authorities were also in the process of formally adopting it.
The plan – the Waste and Minerals Sites Plan – consists of a joint set of policies forming part of a broader Waste and Minerals Local Plan.
It is also being adopted by the South Downs National Park Authority and East Sussex County Council.
Councillor Mitchell said: “This has been a really thorough, extensive and legally compliant process.
“Now Councillor Janio wants to throw everything up in the air, potentially leaving us without a plan.”
She said that adopting the plan would protect other sites in Brighton and Hove from being used for things like handling rubbish.
And she added: “I’m pretty disappointed with these antics.”
Councillor Janio said: “Isn’t democracy uncomfortable sometimes! I am elected every four years to represent the people of Hangleton and Knoll and I will do my damnedest to respond to their wishes.
