A contorversial plan to build homes at a derelict South Downs Quarry has been blocked (The Argus, September 13).

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott refused permission as he agreed with the planning inspector who said the proposal would damage the Sussex Downs area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) and harm wildlife.

So far, so good. But it was spoiled by Mr Prescott's next comment: "Building at the disused cement works would be premature while the old quarry remains identified as a possible incinerator waste site."

Nothing could do an area of outstanding beauty more harm than a potentially toxic incinerator, belching out its invisible fumes, including furans, dioxins and other cocktails of deadly pollution, as well as toxic fly ash that still has to be landfilled.

History has shown that incinerators are always sold as "state of the art" but all end up polluting and blighting massive tranches of land.

Ask the residents near the incinerator in Byker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as they too were given assurances that the incinerator was "state of the art" and fully within safety limits when in reality it belched out toxic pollution, breaking virtually every rule in the book.

-John Stevens, Southwick