Sir – The recent closure of Dean Pit was sad and unnecessary. We were told it was not needed although more than 2,000 people signed a petition against the closure. The roadside collection, though extended, does not cope with the bulky articles that were recycled there.

In fact, at a West Oxfordshire environment meeting in the same week, a report said that “there has been little reduction in recycling at bring sites” even with the extended kerbside collection.

We were also told, by Oxfordshire County Council and WODC, that Dean Pit had to close because its temporary planning permission expired this September. OCC is responsible for granting this permission itself, but said that it wouldn’t do so because the Environment Agency had demanded an upgrade, which would cost £1m. However, on application to the EA, they said that they had not required an expensive upgrade, merely made a few minor suggestions and that they would have no problem with the site getting permanent planning permission.

When OCC was asked, under the Freedom of Information Act, how much they had costed for the so-called upgrade, they said no costing had been done as it was going to close anyway! How circular is that — closing because expensive upgrades were required (which actually they weren’t) but not knowing how much any work would cost because it was going to close?

One is tempted to think that the closure was decided on for reasons that one can only speculate about and this spurious argument dreamed up to excuse it.

Glena Chadwick, West Oxfordshire district councillor, Charlbury