THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has recently closed a number of recycling centres in Barry because of so-called "fly tipping and abuse".

This reasoning is disingenuous, to say the least. As an assiduous recycler I used three of these sites on a regular basis - at the Waitrose supermarket, the Waterfront close to the Halford's store and alongside the Gladstone Road roundabout near the police station.

Any "fly-tipping and abuse" was marginal. My interpretation of "fly-tipping" is the dumping of furniture, mattresses, builders' rubble, television sets, fridges, cookers and other large items that should be disposed of at the council's waste amenity site. I cannot recall any of the preceding items being offloaded at the sites I used.

In my view, the real reason for closure was staggeringly simple: the bins were not emptied frequently enough and thus became overwhelmed and unsightly.

The council should be more honest and admit their failure to manage the sites properly. Rather, they offer spurious explanations, blaming local people.

Derek Hooper

Barry