A temporary household waste recycling centre in Ashford is to open at the end of the month.

Kent County Council has announced that a new temporary centre will open from Monday, October 29 – to replace the one that closed on Sunday afternoon.

It will be on a site at the far end of Brunswick Road on the Cobbs Wood Industrial Estate, Ashford – just down the road from the former recycling centre which is now being redeveloped to increase its capacity and cut queues.

Until the temporary site opens, Ashford residents will be able to recycle their household waste at other KCC recycling centres in Folkestone, Canterbury and New Romney.

The new temporary centre’s opening times will be Monday to Saturday, 8am to 4.30pm, Sunday and bank holidays 9am to 4pm.

The news that a temporary centre is to open will be welcomed by those unhappy that the former Cobbs Wood centre would be out of action for up to six months while it is redeveloped – prompting their concern that the town and neighbouring countryside would be hit by fly-tipping.

On Tuesday morning Darren Ralph, licensee of the Hare and Hounds on the A20 between Ashford and Hothfield, saw a man dumping concrete in the woods opposite his pub.

Mr Ralph, 40, said: “A van reversed in the gateway opposite the pub, a man got out and did several trips into the wood emptying his buckets of concrete.
“Within days of the tip closing, things are already being dumped – imagine what it will be like in a few months.”

The Cobbs Wood household waste recycling centre is expected to be closed for about six months while the site is expanded and improved.

Last Friday and over the weekend the centre was exceptionally busy as residents took the last opportunity to get rid of stockpiled rubbish before it closed on Sunday.