FLY-TIPPERS dumping piles of rubbish at recycling centres could force them to be scrapped altogether.

Mattresses, scraps of cardboard, bins and old furniture have been left at centres across the Vale of White Horse.

Now councillors have said all 20 of the public recycling centres could be axed because they cannot keep the problem under control.

And, following a month-long public consultation, it seems the public doesn’t want to foot the bill any more either.

Wantage mayor and district councillor Fiona Roper said: “There have been on-going problems with businesses dumping stuff, and they are always overflowing.

“They have just been abused and they have become an eyesore.

“Obviously, some businesses, rather than paying to get rid of commercial waste, are just dumping it here.”

Waste is collected from the recycling points, known as ‘bring banks’, every two weeks.

In a four-week consultation, residents said they would rather do without them.

Vale spokesman Andy Robinson said 31 residents responded to the consultation and the “majority” wanted to scrap the recycling centres.

He was unable to give an exact breakdown of numbers.

He said CCTV had previously been used at Abingdon Tesco but had not proved ‘cost effective’.

Mr Robinson said: “It continues to remain very difficult, costly and time consuming endeavouring to catch people as you can’t always read the number plate from the footage.”

He said since the Abingdon Peachcroft bring bank had been removed, no flytipping had taken place at the site.

Enforcement officers have dished out 14 fixed penalty notices of £80 each and one caution for fly-tipping at the Tesco recycling centre in Abingdon since March 1.

The council also has one pending prosecution and is investigating six incidents of commercial waste being dumped at the same site since that date.

However, Drayton district councillor Richard Webber said the bring banks were a well-used public asset which should be kept.

“They are clearly something that the public loves and use a great deal, but they are being abused.

“We should monitor the sites more closely using officers and CCTV.”

Referring to scrapping the sites, he added: “It would cause endless amounts of flytipping while people get used to the new rules, but the Vale would have washed its hands of the responsibility.”

Residents have been able to recycle glass at the bring banks across the district for more than 12 years.

In 2010 the service was expanded to allow mixed waste – card, glass and plastic – to be dumped in the same bins, as with domestic bins.

Vale bring banks are sited at:

  • Abingdon Tesco and Magic Midget, Preston Road
  • Botley West Way car park
  • Buckland Memorial Hall
  • Cumnor The Vine
  • Denchworth The Fox
  • East Challow Cricket Club
  • Faringdon Gloucester Street
  • car park
  • Frilford Millets Farm
  • Fyfield The White Hart
  • Grove The Bell and the Bay Tree
  • Harwell British Legion
  • Letcombe Regis The Greyhound
  • Marcham Howard Cornish Road
  • Radley The Bowyers Arms
  • Radley College (Behind locked gates outside working hours)
  • Stanford in the Vale The Horse
  • and Jockey
  • Wantage Sainsbury’s supermarket
  • Wytham The White Hart