Rubbish smell could be heading for Little Common

If approved, it could bring the equivalent of the dreadful "Pebsham Pong" into the heart of Bexhill, Little Common and Whydown's classier homes, where houses sell for up to 500,000 or more.

Residents in East Bexhill have complained for years that the stench from Pebsham's rubbish tip, where recycling and landfill takes place, is smelt a mile away.

Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road has been spotlighted by East Sussex County Council as an alternative to the controversial planned Mountfield incinerator, near Battle, if a public inquiry at the end of the year rules against it.

The brickworks owners, Ibstock Limited, revealed to the Observer this week the company backed the idea. It would apply to replace Mountfield if the inquiry results, due next summer, uphold public objections.

Ibstock already runs rubbish dumps at most of its 25 sites around Britain.

The county council has looked at the clay extraction site at the brickworks as a dumping ground, beginning operation around 2010, but Ibstock now says the scheme could be brought forward.