Planners have called for more time to examine the details of a blueprint for a controversial £200 million sewage works.

The treatment centre at Lower Hoddern Farm in Peacehaven, which has been dubbed "Poohaven" by its opponents, would include a seven-mile underground tunnel which would transport sewage from Black Rock in Brighton.

The plans also include pumping stations at Marine Drive in Roedean and Portobello at Telscombe Cliffs.

Every day 95 million litres of water, which has only had preliminary treatment, is being pumped into the sea from Brighton and Hove.

At a highways and planning sub-committee meeting yesterday East Sussex county councillors agreed with a recommendation that the decision be deferred while officers discuss the issues of access, noise, landscape, the visual impact the site would have and the adequate replacement of playing fields with Southern Water.

Bob Wilkins, the director of transport and environment, will report back to the sub committee once negotiations are completed. It is hoped this will happen within three months.

A public inquiry into the planned sewage works is set for June 21, unless planning permission is granted by the county council in the meantime. The part of the scheme which falls within Brighton and Hove City Council's remit has already been given the go ahead.

There have been 1,144 objections to the waste treatment centre which residents say would ruin the landscape as it would be built on a greenfield site and would impinge on an area of outstanding natural beauty.

There are also worries that Southern Water is trying to push the plans through as they are facing legal action for failing to comply with the European Union's urban waste water treatment legislation.

Richard Price, project director for Southern Water, said: "We are pleased that East Sussex County Council officers and their consultants support many aspects of our proposals, not least that the Peacehaven site is the best practicable environmental option to providing improved waste water treatment for the area.

"This need remains urgent as the area is the only one in Sussex, and among the last in the UK, not to meet the urban waste water treatment directive. Our scheme will provide a much-needed facility which would also result in improved water quality off the coast.

"Enforcement action has already begun with the European Commission referring the UK Government to the European Court of Justice for failure to comply with this legislation. At this stage we do not have formal planning consent and are still faced with a pressing need."

But people living in the area are worried about the effects it will have on their homes and well-being as the pipes will be laid beneath their houses.

Councillor John Livings, for Peacehaven and Telscombe, said that people in the area were already being affected by the development even though the county council has not yet agreed the planning permission.

He said: "One woman wanting to go into sheltered accommodation had to drop £30,000 from the price of her home because it was over a planned pipeline."

He added that the 860 children who attend Peacehaven Community School would also lose their sporting facilities if the treatment works was built, and there were concerns that building at Portobello could cause a cliff collapse and the loss of part of the A259.

John Hodgson, of Capel Avenue, Peacehaven, and spokesman for the campaign group PROUD - Peacehaven Residents Opposed to Urban Development - said: "All these industrial and waste water treatment activities must be undertaken on a brownfield site away from residential housing and greenfield sites.

"The city sewage is being dumped on Peacehaven. It is not unacceptable for Brighton and Hove to deal with its own waste."

Mary Voice, who lives in Mayfield Avenue, said: "We have got an awful lot of support in Peacehaven against it.

"We are worried about the smell which will come from the sewage works. My husband William has lived here all his life and it has just been used as a dumping ground."