Millions of litres of water trapped in chalk beneath the South Downs, could soon be pumped to the surface.

There are plans which could have the name Southwick splashed all over bottles gracing the supermarket shelves alongside Evian and Buxton.

Eau d'Southwick may not have the same ring to it as the French market leader but the owners of the former Southwick Hill Farm Dairy are convinced their source will find its way on to tables in hotels and conference centres across Europe.

Councillors at Adur District Council have given permission for the former dairy to be converted in to an extraction and bottling plant for spring water.

However, despite winning approval, no decision has been made on a name.

While Evian's natural spring formed tens of thousands of years ago and is filtered through glacial sands, the waters of Southwick will be pumped from an existing 150ft borehole on the dairy site which is just eight inches wide.

It will be filtered to remove any impurities and then pumped to holding tanks before being gravity fed into smart, modern new bottling machines.

The water will then go through a process which has left the old bottling plant at the former dairy completely obsolete.

In the past, thousands of glass bottles rattled along a traditional conveyer belt creating a deafening noise heard for streets.

That will be replaced by the new compact bottling machines, which measure just two metres by one metre.

Cartons of empty plastic bottles are delivered to the machines and loaded by hand.

The machine creates a vacuum in each bottle, replaces it with the water and caps it.

The filled bottles are then removed by hand and shrink-wrapped in cases of 12 or 24, ready for packaging and delivery to customers.

The new plant could produce up to 50 million litres of bottled water a year in sizes ranging from 250ml bottles to the 19 litre bottles used in drinking water machines.

The owners will invest up to £500,000 in the new plant to extract and bottle rain water which filters through the chalk beneath the South Downs.

The chalk is porous and acts like a giant sponge, trapping the rain water deep underground.

The dairy knew this and took advantage by sinking the 150ft well so it could use the water for washing thousands of returned milk bottles every day.

The site has been redundant since the Ashby family sold the business to Unigate Dairies ten years ago. Its company, SD Holdings is still based there.

Managing director Malcolm Carey said: "The old conveyor belts and rattling bottles we used to have as a dairy will be a thing of the past.

"An American company has produced a micro bottling machine which can handle 2,000 bottles an hour."

The company will produce a full range of bottled water products including natural, flavoured and isotonic sports drinks.

Mr Carey said: "We are not going for the pile them high and sell them cheap end of the market.

"We are looking to a more specialised market, including hotels, conference centres and businesses."

As The Argus reported last month, some local residents are concerned the new business will increase noise and traffic levels in neighbouring Southview Road and affect property prices.

Others have welcomed the move saying it will bring the site back into use after ten years of uncertainty and will create much-needed local jobs.

Mr Carey said: "I am happy to assure residents that our lorries will use the main entrance on Old Shoreham Road.

"I understand the concerns of local residents about noise, but it will be nothing like the old dairy.

"Anyone who has been in a bottling plant knows how noisy it is with all the glass bottles rattling along the conveyor belts.

"We are quite happy for the residents to come here to watch a video of the new machines in action so they can see how quiet they really are.

"We will also need between eight and 16 staff to operate the machines, depending on how many we buy.

"Those jobs will be available to people living in Southwick once the new plant is installed.

"We are looking to be operational sometime during the second half of next year."

He said now the company had planning permission, it could begin work on the plant and start marketing exercises to find out who its main customers were likely to be.

"We will begin locally and hope to expand our business to the rest of the country and possibly into Europe in the fullness of time."