There's been emotive opposition to Southern Water's plans for an upgraded sewage works at Portobello in Telscombe Cliffs, which will reach a climax at this week's public inquiry.

But no one can disagree with the company's objective of cleansing the seas by improving one of the biggest treatment works in Sussex.

And why shouldn't it be at Portobello which has coped with all Brighton and Hove's sewage for more than 100 years?

An alternative site suggested at Newhaven is much further away and is unlikely to be practical as sewage would still have to be pumped up from Portobello towards the new works.

But what Southern Water badly needs to do at the lengthy inquiry is to make its new works as environmentally friendly as possible.

It shouldn't be necessary to make them so immense and ugly when they are being built into the fine white cliffs.

And tertiary rather than secondary treatment is needed to ensure that the seas of Sussex really are as clean as they could be. The scheme as it stands is not good enough.

Beat the bully

One of the biggest refuse companies in Europe thought might was right when it came to dealing with a little recycling firm in Brighton.

Sita, which takes over refuse collection in Brighton and Hove next month, wanted to pull out of an arrangement with Magpie for the local firm to carry on collecting recyclables from homes in Brighton.

Magpie has done a good job and there's no reason why it shouldn't continue. Councillors should remind Sita that small can be beautiful.

What a carry on

Brighton's saucy reputation made it the ideal location for the Carry On series and many of them were partially filmed there.

Now a new book called Carry on Uncensored sheds a new light on scenes shot both in Brighton and at Camber Sands near Rye.

Many fans of traditional British innuendo will feel it's a pity that the Carry On films didn't live up to its name as the series stopped seven years ago.

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