Councillors voted 30 to 19 against pausing the Tavistock Road tip closure. The council says it was a delegated decision that saves over £300,000.

The West Drayton weekend tip will close as planned. Hillingdon councillors voted down a motion to pause the closure on Thursday night, by 30 votes to 19.

The motion asked the Cabinet to halt the shutdown of the Tavistock Road civic amenity site, due on 21 December 2026, and review it. A petition against the closure had gathered 6,594 signatures. We set out what the motion asked for, and what the council had published about the site, in our preview of the meeting.

The result was a named vote, with each councillor asked in turn. The Mayor announced it as lost by 30 votes to 19, on the council’s own recording of the meeting. The written minutes are not published yet.

How the decision was made

Our preview reported that we could find no Cabinet decision to close the site. The council has now explained why.

Answering residents’ questions before the debate, Councillor Bridges, the Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services, said it was “an operational decision taken under delegated authority”. Councillor Bridges said it followed financial, legal, equalities and service reviews. In practice, that means officers took it rather than councillors in a public meeting.

The Cabinet Member gave three reasons there was no public consultation:

  • the change does not remove access to waste disposal
  • it does not introduce a new council policy or waste strategy
  • it “increases availability” by giving access to a site open 7 days a week

Councillor Bridges accepted that the new arrangements “may be less convenient for some residents”, and put the savings at “more than £300,000”. The council has not published the calculation behind that figure.

What the council says replaces it

Councillor Bridges listed the alternatives as:

  • kerbside and bulky waste collections
  • the Harefield civic amenity site
  • an expanded programme of Pop-up Waste Drop events, which the Cabinet Member told the chamber had been made permanent
  • Space Waye in Feltham, described as available 7 days a week

The council’s own page for Space Waye bears out the 7 days, with a catch. It opens 8am to 3.30pm every day, but a slot must be booked online for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays, up to two weeks ahead. Only Monday to Thursday is turn-up-and-go (Hillingdon Council). The site is in Feltham, in the borough of Hounslow, and is run jointly with Hounslow Council.

Tavistock Road opens 9am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays with no booking. One councillor speaking for the motion made exactly this point: the replacement for a weekend site that needs no booking is a weekend site that does.

Bar chart of the named vote on motion 8.1 at Hillingdon Full Council on 24 September 2026, to pause the closure of the Tavistock Road tip: 30 against, 19 for. The motion was lost.
The vote as announced by the Mayor on the council's recording of the meeting. Chart by Uxbridge News
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What the other side argued

Councillor Sweeting, who moved the motion, said the site had been a fixture since 2009, on the old coal yard, and that Space Waye was “miles away” and always had queuing traffic. The councillor argued that residents without cars would turn to fly-tipping, and that the savings needed weighing against the cost of clearing it up.

Councillor Bridges replied that the opposition had once opposed the site itself, warning of queues, traffic and noise. The Cabinet Member said the council would monitor fly-tipping, pop-up usage and resident feedback, and would “consider” changes if the evidence showed they were needed.

One resident who asked a question has no car, and said they travel from Ruislip to West Drayton by train, then walk to the site pulling a large shopping trolley. They asked what alternative the council would offer people in that position. The Cabinet Member’s answer pointed to kerbside collections, the pop-up events and “facilities that can be reached by public transport”.

Harefield has no pedestrian access at all, according to the council’s own page for it (Hillingdon Council).

Harefield: the barriers, and who uses it

A separate public question asked why the non-resident barriers at Harefield are broken. Councillor Bridges said the barriers had “significant technological issues” that caused heavy congestion on site, and no fix was found. Staff now check HillingdonFirst cards by hand instead, alongside periodic audits.

Councillor Bridges gave the council’s latest audit of Harefield visitors:

Visitors Share
Showed a HillingdonFirst card 91.8%
Showed other proof of living in the borough 7.5%
No ID, or not a Hillingdon resident 0.7%

On that basis, the Cabinet Member said the income lost from non-residents was “minimal”. Magazines and paper are still taken at Harefield, in the mixed recycling, and that a textile collection point remains there, according to the answer. The council would rather residents put paper in their kerbside recycling.

What it means for you

  • Tavistock Road stays open until the closure date. Saturdays and Sundays, 9am to 4pm, for Hillingdon residents with proof of address. The council’s page for it still carries no closure notice.
  • After 21 December, weekend trips need planning. Space Waye needs a booked slot from Friday to Sunday. Harefield needs no booking, but its own page warns queues “can average around an hour and half” at busy times.
  • Without a car, the options narrow. Harefield takes no pedestrians. The council’s answer is the pop-up events and bulky waste collections.
  • The next pop-up near the south of the borough is at The Closes car park, Church Close, West Drayton, on Saturday 10 October, 10am to 2pm, as listed in our preview.

The petition itself has not yet had its formal response. Under the council’s scheme, that comes from the Cabinet Member, and decisions under the scheme are final, as we explained in our guide to Hillingdon petition thresholds. Your bin days are on our Uxbridge bin collection days page.

The rest of the meeting

Two other motions were debated. One asked for a review of the members’ code of conduct, and was also lost. The other asked the Cabinet to pause backdated rent rises on council-owned shopping parades. It went to a named vote, but the Mayor’s announcement of the result is not audible on the recording, so we will report it when the minutes are published.

Sources