HAMPSHIRE County Council may not be closing Somerley recycling centre after all. 

The authority previously said it is facing a budget shortfall of £132m by April 2025 and that as many as 12 tips, including two in the New Forest, may be closed. 

Somerley tip, in Verwood Road, and Marchwood tip near Southampton could both be saved after county councillors rejected initial proposals. 

Both New Forest District Council and the New Forest National Park Authority said they made “robust representations” to the recent county council budget consultation. 

District council leader Jill Cleary made a direct appeal to the county council leader Nick Adams-King, raising concerns over the potential impact of a closure on New Forest residents and the special landscape and natural environment of the national park. 

But a final decision will not be made by Hampshire County Council’s cabinet on October 14. 

Geoffrey Blunden, cabinet member for the environment and sustainability at New Forest District Council, said: “Many of us are aware of the difficult choices being faced by our county council colleagues in meeting sector wide financial pressures.    

“I am pleased to hear that the county will be continuing to support our system wide approach to reducing waste and improving recycling rates, something that our own wheeled bin rollout is already playing a key part in achieving.  

“I had been concerned that the closure of Somerley or Marchwood Household Waste Recycling Centres would have had a knock-on burden that would have fallen squarely on the protected habitats and landscapes of the national park.   

“We know from data collected during the covid period, when household waste recycling centres were closed, that there was a demonstrable uptick in the environmental scourge that is fly tipping.    

“Recycling centres are a key component of promoting recycling and reuse, as all councils act towards the binding Net Zero 2050 targets."

The district council said it will make further representations, in support of the removal of the threat to the tips, at the meeting later this month. 

In 2022/23 Hampshire residents booked 2.1 million tip visits, depositing almost 120,000 tonnes of household waste across the network.