RECYCLING residents want local tips to stay open and fear amass increase in flytipping if a new supertip is built in Pitsea.

South Essex boasts some of the best recycling authorities in the country, with Rochford District Council consistently at the top of the national charts, but people fear that success could be scuppered if people are faced with a 20-mile round trip to a tip.

The Echo visited Rayleigh tip, on Castle Road, to gauge the reaction of residents disposing of their waste.

Lee Price, 48, of Whitehart Lane, Hockley, fears people won’t travel the extra distance to get rid of their rubbish.

He said: “We’re only in Hockley so it’s common sense for us to come here.

“Especially when we are trying to recycle more and be more environmental, it seems ironic we are travelling all the way to Pitsea to do it, a bit of a waste of time.

“There’s a good chance people will start flytipping more.”

Rayleigh resident Michael Hart, 42, who was unloading carpets from a van, said he would not want to drive to Pitsea.

He said: “I know people in the building game and, out of all the tips I know, this is the busiest one.

“It’s always busy so why change something that’s not broken?

“It would be a problem for me, getting all the way to Pitsea, I’m not driving all the way up there and I imagine a lot of people would start flytipping because of that.”

Bruce Taylor, 39, from Rochford, said closure of Rayleigh tip would be costly for him, as Rochford to Pitsea is a 24- mile round trip and, on April 1, the county council terminated its arrangement with the borough council allowing Rochford residents to use Southend tip.

He said: “Pitsea would be too far for me and I’ve got to pay to go to Southend.

“I think people would dump their rubbish elsewhere – the council will end up paying more money to clear it away.

“What they save on the roundabout, they’ll lose on the swings.”

Dave Blackwell, the leader of Canvey Independent Party as well as a town, borough and county councillor for the island, said his fellow councillors would oppose the closure of its tip.

He said: “I’ve been told that the tip is not going to close, but I wouldn’t be the first politician to say something like that and then, the next minute, it’s closed.

“My opinion was, if we’ve got something which we want to keep on Canvey which is an absolutely superb facility, why include it in a consultation and give people the idea it’s going to close?

“All the local councillors have been campaigning 100 per cent to stop it.”