NEW Forest residents may have to pay to use council tips to prevent them from closing or cutting their opening hours.

Hampshire County Council yesterday (THURS) unveiled proposals to launch a pay-as-you-go system, with people being charged £1 every time they use one of the household waste recycling centres.

The council needs to slash its budget by £140 million by April 2019 and met yesterday to debate a raft of cost-cutting measures that aim to help the authority meet its target.

Members of the public who addressed the meeting cited the "madness" of closing tips, warning that fly-tipping in the county would increase if the proposal went ahead.

One protester said: "Please try harder for less drastic alternatives."

County council leader Roy Perry said a charge for using recycling centres would eliminate the only alternative - closing up to half the tips.

He also announced that town and parish councils that wanted to "rise to the challenge" and provide more services themselves would be given a one-off payment to help them do so.

Earlier this year, it was reported that fly-tipping was happening almost every week across the New Forest.

Speaking at a select committee last month, Lymington councillor Michael White said: “Losing our site will only result in more fly-tipping.”