Campaigners stepped up their campaign to save a recycling centre as a consultation drew to a close this week.

Members of the Elstree and Borehamwood Resident’s Association have been handing out leaflets at the Elstree recycling centre, off Allum Lane, which has been earmarked for closure in a Hertfordshire County Council consultation.

The consultation includes suggestions put forward by AmeyCespa, the council’s new waste management company, which will run the county's household waste recycling centres from October.

Of the 17 sites across the county, Elstree and Hoddesdon recycling centres have been suggested for closure while the remaining 15 will have their opening hours reduced.

Councillors Morris Bright and Harvey Cohen, along with concerned residents, launched a campaign across Borehamwood and Elstree to help save the site - with their petition now receiving more than 1,500 signatures.

Thousands of flyers have been handed out to date but as the consultation draws to a close this Sunday, volunteers have upped their leafleting hours with members of the residents association campaigning outside the centre every day this week.

Sue Alford, one of the members, said: “I would say around 99 per cent of the people using the site are very angry about the consultation and possible closure. It just seems so short-sighted.

“I’ve now prepared an official complaint to the county council, against the lack of time we were given and the lack of available documents and leafleting. We’ve taken photos of the tiny, wishy-washy leaflets they’ve put up to prove that not enough has been done to alert people to this.”

Lawrence Stack, also an EBRA member, said he thought the group had handed out around 100 leaflets a day over the last three weeks that they have been out campaigning.

He added: “There haven’t been any public meetings, and we weren’t given enough time to let people know. If we hadn’t been here handing things out and stopping every car, people wouldn’t know. There are still people driving in that have never even heard the plans.”

Around a third of people who have completed the online consultation are from Elstree, which equals more than 1,100 responses out of a total of more than 3,400.

Cllr Bright said: “We must keep the pressure on - if we continue to work together we can save Elstree but people must continue to fill out the consultation. The petition isn’t enough.”

Cllr Leon Reefe, who put forward a motion to have the consultation scrapped, added: “This is not political- we want to keep the centre open. If this goes ahead the recycling rates will go down and the land fill tax will go up, and we will all have to pay more because of it.”

Hertfordshire County Council will decide on the proposals at a meeting on Thursday, September 18.