ALRESFORD residents have vowed to fight to retain their household waste recycling centre amid fears it may be axed.

A crowd gathered at the recycling centre on Prospect Road on Monday morning to support a ‘pop-up’ protest led by Winchester City Council representative Margot Power, who is convinced that “closure or even reduction of opening hours will cause more fly-tipping .... and even higher costs".

New Alresford Town Council has had to bow out of the fray, due to the upcoming election on May 5, but a public meeting was scheduled for last Thursday, led by the Nursery Road Residents’ Association, with a view to launching a campaign to prevent any closure of the recycling facility.

Nursery Road Residents’ Association member Sam Kerr-Smiley believes cuts to the facility would be a misguided. He said: “The household waste recycling centre is very important to Alresford and serves people from a wide area. If it were to close or be subject to reduced hours it would be bound to result in an increase in fly tipping and a reduction in recycling.”

The crisis has arisen after the launch in March of a 10-week consultation to ask residents how they think savings can be made in the cost of running such recycling centres.

Hampshire County Council has to make savings to meet a £98m funding shortfall by 2017, with £14.7m planned to be found from the economy, transport and environment department’s budget.

The county council operates a network of 24 waste recycling centres, all of which open seven days per week, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

The proposals include changing opening hours and/or the closure of some sites. A combination of the proposals and options within them may be considered.

The county council said that residents’ views on these changes “are very important” and will be taken into account before any decisions are made, later this summer.

While Alresford’s waste recycling centre is one of three in the Winchester area, Alton’s centre is one of three in East Hampshire, alongside those at Bordon and Petersfield.

According to Hampshire County Council, the 0.17-acre Alresford site handled 2,082 tonnes of waste in 2014/15, of which 60 per cent was recycled, making it one of eight sites in the county considered to be the most expensive to run which, protesters believe, makes it more vulnerable.

In the same period, the 0.84-acre site off Wilsom Road in Alton handled 6,450 tonnes of waste, recycling 87 per cent, while the 0.62-acre site at Bordon handled 8,086 tonnes, recycling 91 per cent, and Petersfield’s 0.4-acre site handled 6,104 tonnes of waste, also recycling 91 per cent. All three sites fall within the middle range for costs.

This information is included as part of the county council consultation in which residents are asked to consider options such as reducing opening hours at all sites for one hour per day (saving £400,000), closing all sites on one day per week (saving £450,000), or closing all sites two days per week, but introducing extended opening hours on one other day (saving £800,000).

The second proposal is to partially close one or more sites – closing up to 10 smaller sites during the winter (October 1-March 31) would save £500,000; opening up to 10 smaller and less busy sites on Saturday, Sunday and Monday only (saving £650,000).

The third proposal is to fully close one or more recycling centre sites: closure of up to four sites would save £440,000; eight sites would save £1,050,000; while closing 12 sites would save £1,850,000. Closure would be considered depending on usage, recycling performance, location and operating costs. Though it cannot by law charge for waste disposal, the county council is also seeking to gauge how people feel about the issue.

It said it was “interested to hear views on this, as support for such a charge could be used as evidence for a new, future approach, if the Government were to change the law to permit charging”.

A questionnaire can be found at hants.gov.uk and a paper copy is available by calling 0300 555 1389 or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

The consultation closes on Wednesday, May 25.