MARLBOROUGH Town Council has decided not to provide an amenity skip service when Kennet District Council withdraws its scheme at the end of March.

The town council received a letter from Kennet informing it that the service will be withdrawn from March 31 next year. It said the service was ending because it was in conflict with its waste reduction strategy.

Skips are against Government policy because the waste goes into landfill sites and is not recycled.

Coun David Parker, chairman of the town council's finance and general purposes committee, told a meeting on Monday that officers from Kennet were asked to attend but no-one was available.

Even if the town council was to provide skips, at a cost of £15 each, they would still have to get permission from Kennet District Council to site them in George Lane car park.

Other councillors disagreed and said that people take things out of the skip as much as they put in.

Coun Parker said that keeping toxic waste and builders' waste from being dumped in the skips was a big problem and the town council might be forced to employ someone to police the skips while they were in position.

He added: "Once you have provided them, you take skips away at your peril."

Town mayor, Coun Bill Cavill, suggested asking for public feedback through the pages of the town council newsletter, The Greyhound, but other councillors said the response would be to request more skips than are being provided at the moment.

Coun Hilary Cripps said: "People are already saying the skips are full up shortly after they arrive. You will have three out of four respondents saying they want more skips."

Coun Graham Francis said that a public inquiry into the provision of a neighbourhood recycling centre in Marlborough would be held in April .

He said if the centre was approved the skips would be unnecessary, as local people would be able to take their household waste there.