CAMPAIGNERS left a county council planning meeting disappointed yesterday when plans for a £5.5m sewage treatment scheme on The Lizard were given the green light.

Church Cove residents Maurice Tunmore and Marilyn Browning led a placard-waving group of protestors hoping county councillors would overturn their officers' recommendation to approve the scheme, which would see sewage pumped into the sea off the picturesque cove.

Among their objections was that sewage dealt with by the new plant will get only a secondary level of treatment and not the much more thorough tertiary processing.

The group argued that the sensitive nature of the Lizard landscape, coupled with ever-increasing coastal cleanliness standards set down by Europe, meant they should get the best possible scheme.

"We really want to be getting a Rolls-Royce of a sewerage system," said Mr Tunmore.

During the meeting, planning committee vice-chairman Neil Plummer, an independent from Stithians, weighed in with the argument that the site deserved the ultra-violet treatment which comes with a tertiary system, for the sake of the local fishermen's jobs.

His understanding was that ultra-violet treatment was usually recommended by South West Water where a sewage works was upstream of shellfish sites and bathing waters. He argued that Cadgwith fishermen had shellfish and lobster beds that needed protecting.

Planning chief Mark Jones, said: "We cannot request tertiary treatment of this scheme," he said.

"We understand what the communities are saying, but these are issues which need to be taken up with the Environment Agency or South West Water."

The new sewage scheme will treat waste from the communities of Mullion and the Lizard, with the treated effluent discharged into the sea via the existing outfall at Church Cove.

A central treatment works will be built near Kynance Garage on the main Helston to Lizard road, with associated pumping stations at Mullion and at Church Cove. Construction is expected to take around 10 months.

South West Water, which had initially planned separate schemes for the communities, held a series of public meetings to gauge local opinion on a joint project.

Faced with the prospect of increased discharges off their coastline, Lizard residents mounted a concerted campaign against the proposals.

Parishioners in Grade-Ruan and in Mullion backed them.

The need for tertiary treatment was also supported by Kerrier district council and bodies including the National Trust and campaign group Surfers Against Sewage.