Call to sack waste rebels

East Sussex County Council's Tory chief accused council leader David Rogers and fellow Lib Dem Kathryn Field of jeopardising controversial waste plans to defend their own political futures.

Peter Jones said the pair had risked losing millions of pounds of Government aid as they tried to avoid having incinerators built in the areas they represent.

He called on the council's majority Lib Dem/Labour group to oust them.

He said: "In the past nine months David Rogers and and Kathryn Field deliberately promoted not one but two variants of a draft waste local plan which they knew would be rejected by Government inspectors.

"They did this simply to try to avoid the possibility of energy-from-waste plants in their electoral divisions."

The comments come after Tory and Labour county councillors agreed on North Quay, Newhaven, as the proposed site for an incinerator in waste plans to be published in November.

The plans, being drawn up jointly by East Sussex and Brighton and Hove councils, will identify North Quay and Mountfield Mine, near Robertsbridge, as sites for burners.

Councillor Rogers, who represents Newhaven, said the Tories had "stabbed Newhaven in the back" by voting for North Quay.

He said: "I think Peter Jones is trying to hide his blushes at the U-turn the Tory group has performed.

"I think he has betrayed East Sussex by no longer insisting Brighton and Hove takes its share."

Meanwhile Simon Sinnatt, a Tory county councillor and the party's general election hopeful in Newhaven, sided with Coun Rogers and condemned the burner decision.

He said: "The health risks of incineration must be properly investigated and it should not be left to councils such as East Sussex to conduct studies that should be undertaken at a national level.

"I cannot and will not vote for any waste plan that includes incineration."

Nationally, the Tories have called for a block on incinerators until the possible health risks have been thoroughly studied.