The Deputy Prime Minister has rejected calls for a public inquiry into proposals for the future management of waste.

Brighton and Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council can now formally adopt the plan which includes the proposal for the controversial incinerator at Newhaven and the waste transfer site in Hollingdean Lane, Brighton. Both these proposals are being fought by campaign groups after waste contractor Onyx, now Veolia Environmental Services, lodged planning applications with both councils.

Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas and more than 8,000 city residents wrote objecting to the waste local plan and called for a public inquiry.

Dr Lucas was deeply disappointed. She said: "This decision flies in the face of public opinion, responsible government and good environmental stewardship.

"It hands a private company the right to burn waste from as far afield as Gloucestershire in a residential area on the edge of the South Downs and as Onyx's profits pile up the price will be paid by local people.

"Local objections to a plan that gives councils a disincentive to cut waste and boost recycling have been ignored in Lewes, Brighton, and now Westminster.

"By refusing to hold a public inquiry into the proposals the Government has sent a clear signal that it just doesn't care about the views of those whose lives will be adversely affected."

The two planning applications could still be called in to the Deputy Prime Minister's office to determine.