THERE were heated exchanges in Farnham Library’s historic Culver Room this week as an “overwhelming” band of residents, councillors and other representatives came out in force to show Surrey County Council the strength of feeling against the proposed closure of the town’s tip.

Just “two or three people” had attended a similar consultation drop-in in Godalming just days earlier, reported Surrey’s waste group manager Richard Parkinson - but in stark contrast, well over a hundred concerned residents packed into to the hastily organised Farnham session, held between 10am and noon on Monday (December 17).

Among those in attendance were all three of Farnham’s county councillors - Farnham Residents’ members Stephen Spence and Andy MacLeod, as well as the recently appointed Tory deputy cabinet member Wyatt Ramsdale - joined by the leaders of both Farnham and Waverley councils, past mayors, a representative of MP Jeremy Hunt, the rector of Farnham Reverend David Uffindell, and Maltings director Gavin Stride.

It comes after Surrey County Council launched a consultation on a raft of fresh cost-cutting measures designed to help shave a further £66m from its budget this year - with concessionary bus travel, libraries, children’s services and recycling centres all in the firing line. Two of the three options proposed for the future of Surrey’s tips involve the permanent closure of the “lesser-used” Bourne Mill recycling centre in Farnham.

Clearly struck by the size of the attendance at Monday’s drop-in, Mr Parkinson - joined on the top table by Surrey project manager Nick Meadows - launched the meeting by explaining that the county council’s government grant has been “cut significantly” in recent years, adding “if we don’t make changes to our budget, we will end up in a Northamptonshire situation where the Government steps in and the county council effectively goes bust”.

He continued: “We have been able to use our reserves over the last few years, but those reserves are now dwindling, and therefore we are no longer able to do that, so there are some difficult decisions to be made.

“We have already closed sites a few days a week to save some money, we are charging for certain types of waste that we can charge for, but we are really at the bottom of the barrel now.”

The ensuing question-and-answer session was a chastening experience, however, as the posse of residents and representatives present took every opportunity to share their concerns.

These focussed predominantly on fears that the tip’s closure could lead to a rise in fly-tipping, anti-social bonfires and longer car journeys to tips in other neighbouring towns, as well as the simple fact that Farnham - already Waverley’s biggest town and the third largest in Surrey - is set to get a lot bigger in coming years, with sites earmarked for 2,780 new homes in the town area up to 2032.

Mr Parkinson sought to alleviate fly-tipping concerns, commenting that illegally dumped waste has actually reduced in Waverley since its latest changes came into effect in January.

However, residents responded angrily to Mr Parkinson’s suggestion that recycling has reduced at the Bourne Mill site in recent years - firing back the claim that the tip is so poorly run that people are beginning to take their waste to better-run tips in neighbouring Hampshire, to such an extent that Hampshire County Council has been forced to introduce number-plate recognition and charges for non-Hampshire residents from next year.

Farnham Town Council leader Carole Cockburn said: “If you make the service poor, people are not going to use it. The tip has gradually been degraded, and fewer of us use it because we find a better way of disposing of our rubbish, and so your statistics are skewed. I can’t even begin to understand your logic of having a town of this size, expanding at the rate that it’s expanding, and putting all those extra cars on the road to dump their rubbish - it beggars belief.”

Responding, Mr Parkinson admitted the Bourne Mill tip “is not a great site” and receives a “disproportionate” number of complaints against staff.The council would ideally like to create a new split-level site to replace the centre’s rickety stairs, he said, but added the Farnham centre is “simply too small” to facilitate this.

He also dismissed fears that the site has been earmarked for housing, commenting “we haven’t looked at what might happen to that site because no decision has been made”.

Andrew Lear, a geography teacher who has spent that past three months picketing against the closure at the tip, said: “It seems very backward. This proposal is going against the core principal of being environmentally friendly, and you are giving a negative and uncaring view to young people. It’s a mixed-up message, badly thought out and no focus on the knock-on effects. We should be encouraging recycling, not making it more difficult.”

Former town mayor Mike Hodge added: “The fact is Farnham is the biggest town in the borough, and you can bandy around your figures but we all know it is absolutely bonkers to close our recycling centre.

“We have got to have a recycling centre. Whether it’s where it is at the moment or somewhere else, we have just got to have it.”

United in speaking against the proposed closure, Farnham’s county councillors stressed the importance of “everyone in Farnham” contributing to the consultation.

Mr MacLeod, Farnham Residents member for Farnham Central, said it was “inevitable” that in time the outdated Farnham site would close - but stressed that “the site should not be closed until there is an alternative”.

Stephen Spence, Farnham Residents councillor for Farnham North, praised the “terrific” turnout, adding: “The chances of saving the tip here are greater because you engaged.”

And Tory member for Farnham South Wyatt Ramsdale ackowledged “the mass of feeling is that we would not like to see the tip closed, unless it is moving to a new location” and agreed, saying: “Farnham has got to have a community recycling centre.”