THREE recycling centres are set to close following a council decision.

Following complaints from residents and the increasing cost of cleaning away contaminated waste and fly-tipping, the Brentwood Council has decided to close three recycling bring sites in the norough.

It was agreed at the Environment & Housing Management Committee that the sites that will be closing are located at: Rayleigh Road, Brentwood Centre and Brentwood Town Hall.

Chris Hossack councillor responsible for the environment and housing management commitee said: “These recycling sites suffer from fly-tipping, vandalism and the illegal dumping of trade waste.

"The site at Rayleigh Road is right by a play area and we’ve had problems with vandals breaking glass, so this is a safety issue too.

“Now we have a comprehensive weekly kerbside collection service, the original reason these sites were introduced no longer exists.

“When we have closed recycling bring sites in the past, for example the one at Crown Corner, we monitored them closely to see if they were still a beacon for dumped rubbish and I can reassure residents that this hasn’t happened and the areas are a lot cleaner and tidier since the closures”.

At the Committee, a letter of support was received regarding the closure of the Brentwood Centre bring site from Roger Davinson, the CEO of Brentwood Leisure Trust who run the Centre.

The letter said “Whilst I am always fully supportive of any recycling initiative - the issues we have had here over the years are that it has become more of a dump than a recycling area.

"We have huge amounts of rubbish dumped, especially at weekends, being left stacked, quite often in front of half full bins, meaning that no-one can get near them anyway.

“I offer my full support to the closure of the recycling area at the Brentwood Centre as it is becoming increasingly more difficult to monitor and keep the area tidy.”

The Committee also recognised that some residents will still want to dispose of their recyclables at a recycling bring site.

To this end we are improving the recycling facilities at our Warley site which will also include the opportunity to recycle small household electrical equipment like kettles and toasters. This site isn’t close to any play areas and can be easily monitored by the Council as it is at our depot.

The recycling bring sites will remain open until the improvements have been made at Warley.

Once they are closed, notices will be placed at the sites to give residents information of their nearest facility.