Petition is last ditch attempt to save the Dorking Tip

The Dorking Tip is now under real threat of closure by the County Council, with a decision to be made by its Cabinet on 29 January 2019. The recommendation to the Cabinet, following the consultation, is for the Tip to close.

The Liberal Democrats launched a petition to save the Dorking Tip as soon as the County Council announced that it was considering closing the Tip in the Autumn of 2018 and, with more than 1,200 signatures, it was delivered to the County Council in early January 2019.

The petition, which calls on the County Council to keep the Tip open, and to open it seven days a week, will be formally presented to the Council's Cabinet before it makes the final decision.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Hazel Watson (Dorking Hills) said:

"The Dorking Tip has 1,679 visits per week and deals with 2.813 tonnes of waste. Redirecting all these visits to the Leatherhead Tip will not only inconvenience Dorking residents but will also increase congestion on roads in the Leatherhead area and will result in longer queues at the Leatherhead Tip, longer than the three quarters of an hour that residents are already reporting to me.

"As a result, our petition has received fantastic support, not only from residents of Dorking and surrounding villages who use the Dorking Tip, but also from residents in the Leatherhead area."

In responding to the petition, residents have:
• expressed significant shock that the County Council is again consulting over proposals to close the Tip only eighteen months after its last proposals to close the Tip which were overturned after a very high profile campaign backed by many Dorking residents; and
• claimed that the closure of the Dorking Tip four days a week after the last consultation resulted in an increase in fly-tipping in the Dorking area and called on the County Council to keep the Tip open to avoid even more fly-tipping.

Hazel Watson continued, "Since delivering the petition at County Hall in early January, many more residents have signed the petition, with more residents signing every day.

"These additional signatures, which brings the total number of signatures up to over 1,800, will be presented to the County Council before the Cabinet meeting".

With the petition being signed in such significant numbers it is clear that the Dorking Tip is a highly valued local facility as people want to dispose of their waste responsibly at a facility within easy reach of where they live.

Hazel Watson added, "If the decision to close the Dorking Tip is made, local people from as far away as the border with West Sussex will have to drive to the Leatherhead Tip to dispose of their waste.

"This is too far for many people to travel.

"Some residents have told me that if the decision goes ahead they would not take their recyclable items to Leatherhead but would put them in their bins for disposal instead. If others do the same it would result in significantly less recycling."

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Hazel Watson concluded, "I am hoping that the County Council's Cabinet will listen to all of those residents who have signed the petition as closure of the Dorking Tip would be detrimental to local residents in Mole Valley and to the environment. This petition is a last ditch attempt to save the Dorking tip from closure and I hope it will be successful."