A ROAD will be closed off to traffic in a bid to stop nuisance flytippers dumping bags of rubbish, garden waste, unwanted furniture and even old cars.

Essex County Council is expected to authorise a Traffic Regulation Order, meaning Old Church Road, Bowers Gifford, will become a public walkway.

Basildon's Local Highways Panels, which is responsible for deciding traffic measures across the borough, has also been given £4,000 to install bollards at top the top of the road to stop vehicles breaching the order.

It comes after a spate of flytipping incidents along the country lane over the past year.

Workmen were at the site one again on Friday clearing up dumped building materials.

Basildon Council is believed to have spent more than £16,000 removing rubbish from the road.

Karen Watts, 57, from Bowers Gifford, said: “I think it is just terrible.

“We need the bollards in place to prevent people dumping rubbish in the road.

“The flytipping is getting worse and it costs Basildon Council a lot of money to remove the rubbish.

“I think part of the problem is that some people are scared to approach the people who are doing this, but I'm not."

Keith Bobbin, chairman of the Basildon Local Highways Panel, said work installing the bollards, near the London Road junction, will be authorised once the Traffic Regulation Order has been signed off.

A 21 day public consultation must take place before that can be done.

Mr Bobbin said: “We have been assured by Essex County Council that this funding for the bollards to block off Old Church Road is there for us.

“The money is just sitting there and we should be using it now.”

Last month a company director was ordered to pay £3,500 after paperwork linked to his business was found in flytipped rubbish in the road.

John Burton, 22, from Marshall Driveways and Patios Ltd, based in Basildon, admitted instructing a company to take away two tonnes of waste on his behalf, pleading guilty under the Environmental Protection Act of failing in his duty of care to ensure the rubbish was disposed of in the correct way.

A spokesman for Essex Highways said: “Detailed specification of any works or necessary orders has still to be confirmed. Where a Traffic Regulation Order is needed, it must be advertised locally in the press and there is a 21 day public consultation period.”