Residents banned from neighbouring county's tips

About 80,000 tonnes of waste is left at the 16 Hertfordshire recycling centres

Central Bedfordshire residents have been banned from taking their waste to Hertfordshire's recycling centres after the local authorities failed to make an agreement.

Hertfordshire County Council decided to restrict access to their 16 centres in March to help meet a savings target of £400,000.

Estimations showed as many as one in five users at Hertfordshire's tips lived outside the county.

Meanwhile, an agreement with Cambridgeshire was said to be "near completion and implementation" and discussions with Essex were "broadly similar" but ongoing.

Residents from other neighbouring authorities have already been banned from using Hertfordshire's recycling sites.

However, at a meeting of the council's environment cabinet panel, Andrew McGinn – team leader for the recycling centre service – said enforcement of the bans had been limited.

He said staffing issues had made it "difficult to carry out the required checks on site with any consistency or to the required standard".

Liberal Democrat councillor Adrian England questioned the non-resident policy.

However, Eric Buckmaster, Conservative executive member for the environment, said Hertfordshire taxpayers were "effectively subsidising" those from outside the county.

He added the county council was working hard to make sure the ban does work.