A campaign has been launched to prevent an incinerator from being built at the old Upper Beeding cement works.

Peter Read, an Upper Beeding parish councillor, has called for residents to block plans for a burner off the A283, a few hundred yards from the South Downs Way.

Mr Read believes the incinerator could have a devastating effect on the local environment.

Together with another parish councillor, Gordon Holloway, and resident Bob Selmes, he has been targeting villagers in a bid to raise awareness of the plans.

He said: "We are very worried about the possibility of having this incinerator. We are worried about traffic congestion and pollution from increased traffic, but most of all we are worried about pollution from the incinerator itself."

Mr Read said the campaigners, which is backed by Upper Beeding Parish Council, did not object to the use of the cement works as a waste site. He said he believed it would be more appropriate to use it as a recycling centre.

He said residents objected to the idea of waste from East Sussex or Hampshire being processed in an incinerator so near to their homes.

The cement works is one of 48 sites named in West Sussex County Council future waste disposal plans.

A council spokesman said: "No firm decisions have been taken about what will or will not happen at any of these potential sites. We are still in the consultation period which ends on February 28.

"No firm decisions will be taken even then. It is an extremely long process, and we welcome people who want to put forward different points of view."