Anger on the streets after closure of local tips

Fly-tipping incidents could increase after three household waste recycling centres near Bradford were closed, voters fear.

Bradford Council claimed to have saved £900,000 by shutting the tips - leaving candidates contesting the Keighley and Ilkley seat in the general election faced with answering questions about waste disposal.

Residents were worried that rubbish would be illegally dumped in the countryside by people faced with a longer journey to their nearest recycling centre.

BBC Yorkshire reporter Charles Heslett visited the village of Haworth to find out what people's views were on the mothballing of tips in Queensbury, Keighley and Ilkley earlier this year.

Phil Henderson, 76, lives in Haworth and is retired.

He said: "The reason I think fly-tipping has risen, especially in the last few weeks, is because they've closed the tip.

"I've only seen one example of that, but I've heard other people talk about it.

"They've got to give the councils more money so that they can keep the tips open."

His opinions were shared by Ian Birch, 74, who runs a gift shop in the village.

Mr Birch said: "Bradford Council closed our Sugden End tip, and it's a nightmare now because we have to go to Keighley, and those that have been down to Keighley have queued for up to two hours.

"If you want to get rid of something you either queue for two hours or dump it where nobody's looking.

"The community does need places to take stuff that people want to get rid of.

"If they need to charge, well I suppose they'd have to charge. Whatever you need to do.

"But you can't just not have a place to take unwanted refuse."

Grandmother Kathryn Moran is from Haworth and beckoned me over when she heard me interviewing people about the issue.

She said: "Well, I'd like someone to reopen the local tip, which they've closed. It was a very busy tip.

"Now you have to go down into Keighley and the other day I queued for two hours just to tip a few little bits.

"I think this is why people are fly-tipping, because it's just ridiculous to go down there in the first place and it's so horrendously busy now."

She claimed that Penistone Hill on the outskirts of the village had become a dumping ground favoured by fly-tippers.

Cash-strapped Bradford Council plans to make £40m of cuts to services in total.

Five of the recycling centres in the district remain open and it said the three that closed in March were the least-used sites.

One senior councillor also told the BBC that "hotspots" for fly-tipping were actually in inner-city areas and many were close to tips that were still open.

Labour candidate for the Keighley and Ilkley constituency, John Grogan, said: "Bradford Council has no money. I have approached town councils in Ilkley and Keighley about chipping in towards the cost of reopening the tips."

His Conservative opponent Robbie Moore said: "I support a national policy to add penalty points to driving licences of people caught fly-tipping, and an increase in fines."

Independent candidate Vaz Shabir added that he was "disgusted" with the closures and blamed both Bradford Council and central government for a lack of funding.

Liberal Democrat candidate Chris Adams said he supported the scrapping of a £50 charge for household waste collections, and wanted to see more enforcement targeting fly-tippers.

The Green Party's John Wood argued that the cost of living crisis had caused fly-tipping to increase as people were unable to pay for skips or collections. He favoured a £10 charge for every car using a tip to pay for the upkeep of the sites.

Dominic Atlas, the Yorkshire Party candidate for Keighley and Ilkley, said he wanted to see more repercussions for fly-tippers and increased fines. He also called for further devolution for Yorkshire to secure the “proper funding” it requires to pay for public amenities like waste tips.

Reform UK did not respond to requests for comment.