I have just spent a pleasant and relatively rubbish-free week away from Brighton.

While the beaches where I was staying were not pristine after holiday makers had gone home, it was nowhere near as disgusting as the mess on our seafront after a recent weekend.

I was horrified when I walked to work on Monday morning at the piles of rubbish everywhere.

The rubbish pickers were working away nobly but the beach was strewn and bins overflowed with litter, much of which consisted of recyclable plastic bottles, cans, cardboard and even glass.

Wouldn't taxpayers' money be better spent on developing schemes to recycle rubbish from the seafront rather than sending thousands of pounds up in smoke on public inquiries into incinerators no one wants?

-Alison Walters waste campaigner, Brighton, Hove and Mid Sussex Friends of the Earth