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A Surrey recycling site will permanently close due to persistent fly-tipping. The Mound car park in Tattenham Corner has been repeatedly hit by high levels of dumped rubbish, despite CCTV cameras being installed at the site Reigate and Banstead Borough Council has said.
The site’s final day will be October 17. Councillor Hannah Avery, executive member for neighbourhood services said: “When fly-tipping at one of our recycling sites blights the local area and prevents us from recycling all the waste that we can, it is doing more harm than good.
“It reduces the environmental benefits, increases the financial costs of waste disposal and takes our Cleansing team away from other work to keep the borough clean. I want to thank the majority of residents who are recycling their waste responsibly and especially those that are going the extra mile to arrange local clean ups.
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“I want it to be easy for Reigate and Banstead residents to recycle as much of their household waste as possible, but I also want them to be confident that their recycling gets recycled properly and has a positive environmental impact.” All collection bins with the exception of the clothes banks will be removed with the vacant space turned over for car parking.
According to the council, its recycling sites can be magnets for large amounts of non-recyclable fly-tipped rubbish – a quarter of all reported tips last year were at the Tattenham Corner site. Overall the council says it clears 300 van-loads of dumped waste from The Mound each year.
A spokesperson for the council said that in an effort to stem the flow they used mobile CCTV and issued 16 fixed penalties for fly-tipping and a further 12 for littering at the site so far this year since, while in March new signs informed visitors that ongoing misuse could lead to the facility being closed without further notice.
It did not reduce the number of fly-tips – including from both commercial and trade waste. The spokesperson added: “The council estimates around 70 per cent of the dumped waste is made up of items that cannot be recycled, which contaminates the recyclable waste that people are disposing of responsibly.
“As a result, the Tattenham Corner recycling site, which is on Royal Drive, will close permanently on Thursday, October 17. The Mound car park will close for one day on October 21 to allow for the creation of additional car parking spaces.”
