Letchworth’s tip was closed on Sunday due to being “full” – causing concern among the community over how waste is managed ahead of collection service reforms being rolled out next month.

Letchworth Household Waste Recycling Centre in Blackhorse Road wasn’t the only site closed – eight in the county had to shut up early due to being at full capacity or having a mechanical fault.

A North Herts resident, who did not want to be named but who complained to the county council, said: “Whoever is under contract to HCC should provide a ‘service’ on the days that they are actually open.

“It is little wonder that there has been a high incidence of fly-tipping throughout North Hertfordshire and it seems to me that HCC is doing little-to-nothing to alleviate this situation.”

County councillor Steve Jarvis – who represents Bygrave, Sandon, Weston, and many other of the North Herts villages – expressed concern in light of the opt-in garden waste collection that North Herts District Council is rolling out from next month.

He said: “The closures are clearly not good enough and I have asked the county council why the contractor which runs the sites allowed this to happen and what HCC plan to do about this.

“NHDC says that if you don’t want to pay their brown bin tax you can take your garden waste to the dump – but you can’t do that if it is closed.”

An HCC spokeswoman confirmed the closures, adding: “The last two weekends have been the first show of improved weather for some time which led to extremely high demand and a number of centre closures as the facilities were unable to cope with demand.

“Full resources were on hand to manage and service the sites but there are limitations in what can be delivered and it was unfortunate that some centres weren’t available to receive waste for the duration of the advertised hours.”

A spokesman for contractor Amey said: “We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this caused. Our sites are all now fully operational once again. We would always encourage the public to visit our sites during weekdays or to view the webcams on the council’s website to check how busy we are before setting off.”

The Comet asked NHDC for its views given the advice for people not paying for the brown bin collection service is to take it to the tip, but a spokeswoman said the council would not be able to comment as the centre is run by HCC.