A WELL-USED recycling point is to shut after council officers decided they could no longer cope with the amount of flytipping at the site.

The household recycling point in Cockerton, in the car park to the rear of the parade of shops, will close to the public on Friday.

A Darlington Borough Council spokeswoman said the decision had been made “with great reluctance” but said the costs of cleaning and maintaining the site had become too great.

The authority also argued that since kerbside recycling had been introduced across the town there was less need for a dedicated recycling point.

Once the site has been cleared the area will be repainted with parking spaces.

Cockerton West ward councillor Jan Cossins said she and fellow ward councillor David Regan had been working with council officers for several months to come up with a solution for the site.

She said: “It really has become an eyesore and I’ve had lots of complaints from people living nearby about rats.

“It is sad that it has to go because there are people who genuinely use it for the right reasons but others just leave it a mess.

“It has to be cleaned up every single day and it costs a fortune to maintain it. The recycling officer has worked hard to make a go of that site, she has bust a gut to make it work.

“But people dump food waste and all sorts and just abuse the site.”

A spokeswoman for Darlington Borough Council said: “We really tried to retain this site and make it work so it is with great reluctance that we have had to remove the banks.

“We have tried repeatedly over the last 12 months to deal with the litter and fly tipping issues and regret that the site has to be removed but the costs of cleaning and the environmental crime is too great for the site to remain.

“We are working hard to increase recycling not decrease it and offer kerbside recycling to every property in Darlington, residents can have extra bags and boxes to contain their recycling and we encourage people to recycle as much as they can.”

The remaining recycling points can be found at Chesnut Street, Asda on Whinfield Road and Morrisons Morton Park, as well as the Household Waste Recycling Centre (tip) on Whessoe Road.