A PROPOSAL to close recycling centres across the county in an attempt to save £350,000 have been branded a “disaster”.

There are fears the move by Oxfordshire County Council to cut the seven centres it currently runs could lead to an increase in fly-tipping.

The local authority will consult on the proposals from early August and has confirmed a reduction in the number of centres will be one option, although it would not say which were most likely to close or how many.

Council bosses have said they will consider building new centres as part of the reduction plan, with a new site potentially replacing a number of closed ones.

They said they wanted to make sure any new centres were located as close as possible to major population centres in the county.

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But county council deputy leader Rodney Rose said household waste could not be exempt from cuts, with more than £280m worth of savings having been made, or due to be made, between 2010 and 2018. The centres – at Alkerton, near Banbury; Ardley, near Bicester; Dix Pit, near Stanton Harcourt; Drayton, near Abingdon; Oakley Wood, near Wallingford; Redbridge in Oxford; and Stanford in the Vale – cost £1.2m a year to run and employ 40 people.

They recycle household waste that is brought to them by residents as well as green garden waste collected by district councils.

The county council said all seven sites were nearing capacity and Ardley was due to be closed by the landowners in 2017, meaning changes would need to be made even if there was not a need to save money.

But Rose Hill resident Don Young, 77, said he was concerned closing some centres could lead to a rise in fly-tipping.

The retired Oxford City Council street cleaner said: “Fly-tipping is getting worse. I have called out the city council four or five times since February about fly-tipping in Rose Hill.

“I think it is absolutely ridiculous to close down recycling centres. They are a good idea.

“If you use your common sense, fly-tipping is something that there is no need to do.

“But people might not want to drive that extra five miles up the road if there is no longer a centre near them.”

Oxford City Council is responsible for dealing with fly-tipping and for collecting waste for disposal and recycling from people’s kerbside bins.

The council’s Green Party leader Craig Simmons said he also feared a rise in fly-tipping.

He added more people putting their waste in their kerbside bins could lead to waste earmarked for recycling being contaminated.

He said: “I think it would be a disaster if these centres close. Fly-tipping is not just people dumping in the countryside, it is waste being left in front gardens as well.

“We have a problem with contamination of waste for recycling already and this will make it worse.

“It means the waste transfer stations we use would refuse to take all of the waste because some of it would be contaminated.”

Millions of pounds more savings are expected to be needed when the Government tells local authorities how much more it will cut from their budgets.

Mr Rose said: “I never joined this job to be in the business of closing everything in sight.

“It is not what we want to do but we have to do a balanced budget this February and every other February. We have no choice.

“At the moment the figures are showing that there is a decline in the use of the centres anyway.

“In 2008-09 1.383 million visits were made to them but in 2014-15 that was down to 1.081 million visits.”

Mr Rose also said a rise in fly-tipping had not been seen in other parts of the country where the number of recycling centres had been cut.

He said: “If people put stuff in their car and drive 20 miles to a household waste centre, why – if it takes another five minutes – will they stop and throw it into a hedgerow?

“It is not a logical assumption.”

The two-month consultation will be available through the county council website at oxfordshire.gov.uk, in libraries and at County Hall, Oxford.