A DATE has been set for a rubbish tip to shut despite thousands of people signing a petition against its closure.

More than 4,000 people put their names to the campaign to save the Recycling Centre for Household Waste in Mill Lane, High Ongar, but the county council, which runs the site, has said it will close in six weeks' time, on November 23.

Gerald McEwen, the county councillor for Ongar, presented the petition to the council’s cabinet and argued against its closure, but was told it was not well enough used to justify keeping it open.

He said: “I’m working on an alternative scheme and am hoping we can get an outside organisation running it.

“It’s worth a try, rather than giving up completely. It was a large petition, by anyone’s standards and represented about 20 per cent of my ward.”

Residents fear that country lanes in the area will be used by fly-tippers when they can no longer dump rubbish at the tip.

They are also worried about the added petrol costs of having to drive to the nearest alternative dump in Brentwood.

Delyth Armes, of Senners newsagents in Ongar High Street, who started the petition against the tip's closure, said: “I’m hoping something will be done somewhere, because where are people going to go?

“We’re going to get fly-tipping and it’s going to cost the council to clear it away, but they obviously don’t see it like that.”

Cabinet members told Cllr McEwen use of the tip had dropped by just over 20 per cent in recent years, while the county average was about a 10 per cent drop.

But he said he had always known the tip to be busy and plans to speak to a private company about running it next week.

“They (the cabinet) agreed to postpone the closure, because originally it was due on October 1.

“I’ve got about six weeks’ grace, because I feel once the door’s shut, it might be more difficult to get it open again.”

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