UPDATE 17/11/2018: Cllr Steve Lydon has pointed to minutes taken of a meeting of the Joint Waste Committee - a partnership between Gloucestershire's county council and district councils - in June of this year that read: "that there were potentially controversial decisions to be made, eg charging, and it would be important to ensure that these were taken in unison."

Gloucestershire County Council has denied it is considering bringing in charges for tips, criticising such claims as "fake news".

The denial from Nigel Moor, the county councillor responsible for Gloucestershire's Household Recycling Centres (HRCs), came after a letter to the SNJ from a Stroud district councillor suggesting charges were on the table.

"I understand consideration was and is being given by the Conservatives to charge in the future to use the tip," Steve Lydon, a Labour councillor for the Stanleys, had wrote.

"I heartily agree with the suggestion that local people should contact their county councillor to get this nonsense decision reversed."

Cllr Moor, part of the Conservative-led administration at Shire Hall, has written to the SNJ to deny this.

 

He responded: "I am very disappointed to read the letter from Steve Lydon on HRCs in last week's SNJ.

"In it he claimed the Conservatives were considering bringing in charges for HRCs (or the tip to you and me).

"This is untrue.

"Labour councillors must be getting desperate if they are putting this sort of fake news about.

"Had cllr Lydon, or any Labour councillor, bothered to ask, I would have been very happy to tell them this is untrue."

Cllr Lydon's original letter had been prompted by reduced opening times for Gloucestershire's tips coming into force.

They will now each by closed one day a week, with Horsley tip - known proper as Pyke Quarry HRC - shut on Wednesdays.

Read more here: bit.ly/2PwJCK8