Villagers have joined forces o protest against plans to build a massive composting plant near their homes.

Planning permission was granted two years ago for the open-air facility off the A27 in Poling, near Arundel, to deal with up to 40,000 tons of green waste, kitchen waste and animal by-products a year.

But West Sussex County Council rejected an application by site owner Vinery Management to build an 11m high, 10,000sqm building to house the operation.

Now Vinery has submitted a revised application.

Poling Against Composter Threat (Pact), Chestnut Tree House children's hospice, and Arun District Council were against the plans.

They fear harmful airborne bacteria known as bio-aerosols could be released into the atmosphere and harm the health of those living nearby, including the children at the hospice, many of whom have respiratory diseases.

The hospice is not objecting to the revised plans but the Pact members who would have to live in the shadow of the massive building, on the former Blue Prince Mushrooms site, are convinced that it would damage their wellbeing.

Tony Mercer, chairman of the Poling Parish Council, said: "If we can't see it or hear it or smell it then we would have no objection to it but at the moment we are still going to see it, we are still going to hear it and we are still going to smell it.

"Bio-aerosols will also be a potential problem.

"The building will be absolutely massive. It is as wide as two football pitches and three to four storeys tall.

"There is also an increased danger posed by traffic coming in and out of it along the busy A27."

Lorraine Reed, who has lived in Poling with her husband Phil for more than 20 years, said: "It's an absolutely huge building.

"We have a lovely community here and we live in a fragile place. This is an industrial process in a rural community.

"If this is to be one of the first green and kitchen waste composters in West Sussex then it has got to be really good and take all the issues of visual impact and affect on the community into account.

"It has to be a flagship operation and judging by what we have been presented with, it won't be."

The owner's agents, the Luken Beck Partnership, said that housing the operation inside a building would reduce the possibility of smells, noise and emissions coming from it.

Paul Airey from the company said: "We hope that we have addressed the reasons for refusal that were put forward by the council.

"This site already has already got planning approval to operate as a green waste processing plant. That already exists and could be implemented.

"What we are proposing is a brand new facility that would be well-screened from the surrounding area, would fit in well with the existing environment of the Vinery industrial site that has been approved and would have little impact on residents."

West Sussex County Council is expected to decide on the plans when it meets on May 13.

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