At the same time, fears were expressed at the prospect of demands for more new gypsy caravan sites than local authorities believe are necessary.

Any moves towards stepping up mineral extraction are particularly ominous for Chichester, because remaining gravel reserves are in the city area.

Chichester District Council leader Cllr Myles Cullen spoke out during last week's assembly meeting, with a warning that all the gravel was squeezed into a narrow area between two areas of outstanding natural beauty.

After his comments, and other issues raised during debates, the assembly deferred decisions on both gypsy site allocations for the region and mineral extraction.

West Sussex County Council leader Cllr Henry Smith said afterwards that he remained concerned about external pressure on the county both in terms of the imposition of unsustainable numbers of gypsy sites and from requirements to extract additional amounts of aggregates.

This was a repeat in many respects of the London waste issue, with the possibility West Sussex and other areas might be told to accept rubbish from the capital.

"It illustrates that these sort of decisions should be made by locally-elected authorities and not at the behest of the government by an unelected regional quango," said Cllr Smith.

"This is one of the reasons why we decided we had had enough of SEERA, and are voting with our feet and leaving it."

The government was using regional assemblies to try to force unpalatable decisions on local areas. "We must keep up pressure to counter the pressure being put on us," he declared. "The county council will work with Chichester District Council to ensure the voice of Chichester and West Sussex is heard loud and clear."

Cllr Cullen said an assessment was carried out in the Chichester district on the question of gypsy sites, and figures were produced after a lot of work.