IF anywhere will always have trouble shaking off a tag as the lowest common denominator of Sussex it is Newhaven.

A few weeks after county councillors ruled out building an incinerator in the town, the same authority has begun to look at siting a sewage works there.

The embryonic search for an alternative site for Southern Water's huge new sewage treatment plant, should Portobello be ruled out, is as good an example as any of what might happen to the burner.

Building an incinerator at Beddingham, the site county councillors have now earmarked instead of Newhaven, is going to be difficult.

Struggle

High up on the Downs in what should soon be a national park, few will be surprised if the project never gets off the ground. And few would be surprised if building it at Newhaven re-appears on the

horizon as waste planners run out of other options.

The prospect of a sewage works and incinerator in the hard-pressed port horrifies both the people who live there and those struggling to revitalise the economy.

District and town councillor Jo Lewry said: "It is just horrendous. How can we ever regenerate Newhaven if we have to put up with things like this?

"People are not going to want to come here if we have an incinerator, even less if there is a sewage works as well."

Julian Rae, of the Newhaven Economic Partnership, is equally forthright, saying: "It is ridiculous to help us try and regenerate Newhaven at the same time as they dump two of these monstrosities on it.

"It is squandering our image and wasting our space when we are trying to build a good modern future for Newhaven."

The partnership has had a weather eye on this particular

double whammy for a while.

Indeed, it has already registered an objection to Newhaven being chosen for a sewage treatment plant at the public inquiry

currently considering the Portobello proposal.

The inquiry began taking evidence in October and is expected to finish next month. Inspector Simon Gibbs will probably publish his report this autumn.

If Portobello proves a non-starter he will recommend which of the alternatives originally identified as possibilities is best. It is the three sites in Newhaven - North Quay, or two further seaward off Beach Road - the county council wants him to choose.

They were among the sites Southern Water boss Stuart

Derwent told an early session of the inquiry his company had been steered away from by the council, at the same time as admitting

Portobello was not the best

environmental option.

The process of earmarking North Quay as home for an incinerator - plus a waste sorting and recycling plant and road/rail transfer facility - was pretty much the same.

A clutch of sites was identified and Newhaven eventually picked out as the best option for a burner in the west of the county - serving the 400,000 people who live in the coastal strip between Portslade and Eastbourne.

County councillors voted out North Quay, saying Brighton and Hove should find room for a burner, with Beddingham in reserve as the site of last resort.

Whatever happens, there will be a public inquiry. And if the plan to build at Beddingham, which is most likely to be the favoured site, looks like failing, eyes could again turn to Newhaven.

The prospect upsets MP Norman Baker, who said: "Newhaven is a good honest place and deserves better than it has had.

"Newhaven does not shout and scream like some places do, but it can be pretty good at campaigning if it wants to."

Towns like Newhaven traditionally pick up the developments none of the rest of us want in our own back yard.

Witness the high profile campaign to stop landraising in the Low Weald. Newhaven won only a fraction of the publicity; pockets are not as deep, networks not as high-flying.

Chamber of Commerce president Marek Lorys said there had been a history of the town being chosen as the "area of least resistance" and on the latest threat added: "There is an attempt to bounce it by a back door method into Newhaven."

Gateway

He believes a sewage works or incinerator alone would spell disaster for prestige projects such as the East Side business park, which is hoped to generate 1,200 jobs and investment worth £25 million.

Equally hard hit would be plans to regenerate the Avis Way industrial park, or turn the port into a thriving ferry terminal and yachting centre, acting as a gateway to a new South Downs national park.

Turning the corner into a revitalised future could be jeopardised by a council U-turn, and Mr Lorys said: "People in Newhaven are really waking up to the fact that they have to stand their ground.

"Richer areas always do better, there is no question. But people in Newhaven are no longer ready to have this planning nightmare put on them. We are going to act and we are not going to allow this."

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