Bristol mayor shelves Hartcliffe recycling centre

Residents in Hartcliffe Way claim flytipping is caused by the lack of local recycling facilities

Bristol's mayor has been accused of being an "environmental vandal" for shelving a pledged recycling centre.

In 2012, Bristol City Council put £2m aside for the Hartcliffe Way site and the scheme was also part of the city's European Green Capital bid.

Mayor George Ferguson said: "I'm not putting a recycling centre there that's going to cost the city year after year."

The Liberal Democrats at the council have called for the scheme to go ahead.

Liberal Democrat leader Gary Hopkins said: "We have to use the term of environmental vandal at the mayor for the scheme.

"Money was set aside for it, it was even promised as part of the bid for European Green Capital and it's absolutely shocking this scheme has not proceeded."

But the mayor has said the centre's running costs would need to be subsidised every year, which the council could not afford.

Local residents groups, such as Friends of Dundry Slopes Conservation Group, claim the lack of local recycling facilities in Hartcliffe Way is causing fly-tipping.

Resident Heather Jarrett said: "This is one of the problems for not having local recycling facilities open because I feel Dayes Road is so far away, a lot of people don't have cars for a start or they're not willing to go that far.

"It's convenient to dump it in the fields where nobody can see it."

But the mayor has said fly-tipping is a wide-spread national problem and educating people about the crime is a way of tackling it.

Mr Ferguson said he was "starting discussions with social enterprises" to find ways of re-using and recycling waste.