Councillors must sort out the muddle of waste disposal in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove as soon as possible.

All available tips used by the two councils will be full by 2005. Delays could cost them £49 million in credits promised by the Government towards a private finance initiative for dealing with rubbish.

The trouble was caused by East Sussex County Council when it rejected part of the waste plan in December. Today, Lewes district councillors will receive a highly critical report complaining about a lack of consultation over the contract. They know some sites may be in their patch.

But there's already been a huge amount of consultation about waste, which ended in the current deadlock. Everyone knows what the options are. Now decisions must be taken speedily to avoid waste chaos and financial disaster.

Whichever sites are chosen, there is certain to be some squealing as few people want anything to do with waste as a neighbour. Harsh decisions have to be made and the county council cannot be irresponsible on this issue a second time.

Stop the rot

A new project in Whitehawk aims to get the whole community involved in caring for young people. The First Stop scheme is designed to stop domestic violence and sexual abuse in their early stages by encouraging people to talk about these problems rather than keep quiet.

In the aftermath of the shocking Brighton child neglect case, which the Argus revealed, this sort of project makes sense. No one wants children and neighbours to become serial sneaks and snitches. But they must be encouraged to report concerns promptly to prevent problems from getting worse.

Water fiasco!

When council contractors went to Diane McKracken's home looking for the source of damp, they added to it. They accidentally drilled through a mains water pipe in her home after making a terrible mess of it.

Mrs McKracken was so angry she locked the workmen out until they promised to do a better job. This time the battling Brighton mother says they should know their drill.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.