Campaigners against a proposed incinerator and waste dump were demonstrating today in a bid to influence a crucial council meeting.

Protesters were urging Brighton and Hove City Council to reject the waste plan at this afternoon's policy and resources committee meeting at Hove Town Hall.

Brighton, Hove and Mid Sussex Friends of the Earth were joining members of Dump The Dump and Defenders of the Ouse Valley (Dove) to call on councillors to vote against the final version of the waste plan.

Councillors are being advised by officers to adopt the plan but the campaign groups believe it is flawed as it focuses on using an incinerator to burn waste in Newhaven.

The group also objects to the Hollingdean depot in Brighton being used to transfer waste outside Brighton and Hove.

The Waste Local Plan was the subject of a public inquiry in 2003.

Friends of the Earth wants the inquiry to be reopened because it believes the council has ignored some of the changes recommended by the inspector.

The group wants to see half of all the city's waste being recycled and composted by 2015.

Alison Walters, of Friends of the Earth, said: "We think their plan stinks. How can it be right to send the majority of Brighton and Hove's waste to Newhaven to be burnt?" Waste contractor Onyx, which has signed a 25-year deal with East Sussex and Brighton and Hove councils, says an incinerator is essential.

It has warned that by 2008 there will be virtually no landfill space left in Sussex and recycling alone will not be enough to deal with the expected levels of waste.