THE HEAT is on Cheshire County Council to speed up the re-opening of Newgate Tip as tempers flared during one of the hottest weeks on record in Wilmslow.
Angry and frustrated drivers were hot and bothered at the weekend as they made the sweltering 20-mile round trip to other waste sites in the borough to dump their household rubbish.
And they were ready to raise a stink over delays in opening up the £1.2 million recycling centre promised by Cheshire County Council.
Wilmslow Hough ward councillor Wesley Fitzgerald said: "There is irritation about the tip being closed and taking so long to be replaced and the fact that it has been a very hot summer will exacerbate things.
"But in the end we have to go along with procedures that are laid down by regulations and a part of that is to go to consultation to find out how people feel. It is very frustrating but there is nothing else we can do. Slowness is irritating."
Newgate Tip was shut down by the county council in 2000, amid uproar in Wilmslow, because it failed to meet new Environment Agency standards.
Despite a long and costly search for an alternative site councillors were forced to recommend opening it up again three years later.
In January they agreed to open Newgate as a modern 21st Century recycling facility as soon as possible but hit a snag over access when residents of nearby Greaves Road protested.
Councillor Anne Tyrrell said there was now an agreed scheme to take the access road from the start of Greave Road across the field, avoiding houses.
She said stringent criteria set by the EU had to be met before re-opening the tip.
Meanwhile, householders are slogging it out to other sites every time they need a clear out.
Borough Councillor for Alderley Edge and Fulshaw, Marc Asquith, said: "People who want to recycle are doing it to save energy, presumably, but it's quite laughable because they are actually using more energy to get there in the first place.
"For re-cycling to be effective it has to be close to the local community, otherwise it's just a waste of time."
Macclesfield Borough Councillor Andrew Stephenson added: "We are pressing as hard as we can for a tip as soon as possible, especially in the summer months when rubbish starts to build up after spring time. No one wants to be going over to Knutsford when the tip should never have closed in the first place."
