County councillors approved plans for the facility, on the Vinery site, alongside the A27, on Tuesday (May 13, 2008). It will handle around 40,000 tonnes of green and kitchen waste per year and is likely to be the first of a number of similar operations across West Sussex, in the drive to reduce tipping at landfill sites.

Planning officers at the Chichester meeting said the proposals had been sufficiently improved to overcome objections which led to an earlier application being turned down last year.

Tony Mercer, chairman of Poling Parish Meeting, told the committee villagers continued to oppose the composting plant, describing it as a "monstrous building" and "the largest hangar outside Gatwick Airport".

However, speaking after the meeting, he said: "In all honesty, we are not too disappointed, purely because it is better than the previous application.

"As long as the screening is not deciduous, and is conifers or other evergreen trees, we don't think we will have much of a problem. This is still a very large building, and it will be many years before it will be totally hidden from the village and the A27, but it's the best of a bad job.

"We just have to hope they will be good neighbours and involve us."

The planning committee did agree to additional conditions on the planning approval, including places for the Poling Parish Meeting chairman and a representative of campaign group Poling Against Composter Threat (PACT) on a liaison group to discuss issues during the construction and operating of the facility.

Flagship

Officers will also discuss with the Coleman family, owners of the site, and its agents, the possibility of sinking the building into the ground by up to 2m, to reduce the height, which would otherwise be more than 40ft.

Michael Coleman said his family had bought the site from Blue Prince Mushrooms in 2003 and had carried out a considerable amount of research into producing compost from green and kitchen waste.

Paul Airey, of Luken Beck Partnership, agents for the family, said the country had to find a way of tackling the waste problem. "Here is a private sector proposal for dealing with this at no cost to the taxpayer."

He added: We hope that this scheme will be a flagship for waste recycling, demonstrating that composting can be a clean, safe and non-noxious process."

Blot on the landscape

Deborah Urquhart, county councillor for the area, addressing the committee, felt the revised building was still too big. "It will be a blot on the landscape, a monstrosity that will be seen for miles around, even with landscaping."

However, committee members felt there had been sufficient improvements and granted planning permission, but with conditions limiting operating hours, landscaping, design, light, noise and odour pollution, traffic and access.

The site already has permission for composting in the open-air, but the building is intended to prevent smells and harmful microbes escaping, with the use of bio-filters. Earlier this month Arun councillors voted by a large majority to oppose the new plans.

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