PEOPLE in Oxfordshire could be left with nowhere to dump thousands of tonnes of rubbish each year under County Hall plans, a Kidlington parish councillor has claimed.

Andrew Hornsby-Smith said Oxfordshire County Council figures showed a proposed new tip at Langford Lane in the village would not be big enough to handle all of the county’s rubbish.

Under county plans to save £750,000 a year, no other tips in Oxfordshire would be able to take non-recyclable waste from 2014.

In 2009/10, 31,394 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish were left at tips in the county.

Yet according to the planning application, the proposed tip would be able to handle a maximum of 20,000 tonnes of waste a year.

Based on last year’s figures, more than half the rubbish dumped at tips was recyclable.

Mr Hornsby-Smith said: “If the tip is run to full capacity, some 12,000 tonnes could be recyclable waste, leaving just 8,000 tonnes for all the non-recyclable waste left at tips across Oxfordshire.

“It concerns me.

“It is quite clearly either an understatement of the real usage of the tip, or the council is going to find itself in the situation where there are tens of thousands of tonnes of waste with nowhere to dump them.

“The figures do not add up.”

But council spokesman Marcus Mabberley said: “All the evidence shows that unrecyclable waste to landfill continues to fall.

“The amount of non-recyclable waste collected at recycling centres in Oxfordshire has fallen by around a third in the last three years.”

He said binmen now collected more from the doorstep, and all recycling centres would have a “reuse store” and accept a wider range of recyclable waste.

Under council plans, tips at Ardley, Dean and Stanford in the Vale would close, while Redbridge would only accept trade waste. Alkerton, Drayton, Oakley Wood, and Dix Pit would gradually stop taking non-recyclables by 2014.

County Hall has agreed a 25-year-lease for the disused Green Belt land north of Langford Lane, and applied to build a four-acre tip there.

In a response to the application, Kidlington Parish Council said it would harm wildlife, affect a neighbouring business park and cause traffic problems in the village.

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk