Council officers are going to “get creative” to come up with ways to reinstate pedestrian access to the Villiers Road recycling centre in Kingston.

This could involve people leaving their waste outside the site in a trailer or bin, or allowing access at less busy times.

Entrance to the centre has been for vehicles only since a year ago, when other council services were brought to the site.

Resident Martin Bates asked what would be done about this at the Environment and Sustainable Transport Committee on Tuesday, June 26.

He said: “I’ve lived a short distance from the Villiers Road recycling centre for more than 30 years.

"It’s always been very convenient for me to be able to use the site on foot or with a trailer attached to my bicycle.

“I was assured this was a temporary measure and likely to last six months, but the work appears to have been completed a considerable time ago now and there is no sign of access being restored.”

Chairing the committee was Councillor Hilary Gander, who agreed with Mr Bates that the lack of access was a problem.

She said: “Just because you don’t have a car, it doesn’t mean you don’t want to recycle and that you shouldn’t be able to recycle.”

Cutting the queue of traffic would, she said, have environmental benefits too.

She added: “I feel very strongly about this, and I will be asking the officers to look at options. I think we can be quite creative about it.”

Head of environment at Kingston Council Rachel Lewis said a traffic survey of the site had been completed.

She said: “I think the outcome of that hasn’t been overly positive in pedestrian access terms, but as Cllr Gander said, we’re going to have to try to be creative, and that’s what we’re doing at the moment.”

The site traffic is not just from residents disposing of their waste; other council services at the site include the waste collection depot, the winter gritting stores and fleet, the street cleaning fleet and a waste transfer station, which are all used by heavy vehicles.

Ms Lewis said: “The key issue here is safety, and I wouldn’t disagree with what Cllr Gander is saying about providing an open and easy to access site for everybody, including those who do not have a car.

“We need to consider the output of that survey and the recommendations made around safety about how to get residents onto the site in the pedestrian access sense.”

It could be “a couple of months” before those recommendations are made.