FLY-tipping outside Bournemouth Town Hall could be the result of the Millhams tip crisis, a politician has warned.

And councillors are calling for urgent talks between local authorities to stop the problem escalating.

Councillors at East Dorset poured scorn on Bournemouth Borough Council for stopping people from outside the town using the waste disposal facility, which is close to the border between the two authorities.

Passports would soon be necessary to dump rubbish, fly tipping would increase and the atmosphere would become even more polluted as residents drove miles further to get rid of their waste, it was said.

Cllr Queenie Comfort said: "This has all been done in a hurry and with no foresight - Bournemouth Borough Council are the culprits."

Cllr Anne Holland said that Corfe Mullen residents had been threatened with a similar ban from the Nuffield tip in Poole.

"I think this is going to develop into a bigger issue," she said.

"We need to have an agreement that people go to their nearest tip - it's the most environmentally-friendly solution."

Cllr Pat Hymers dubbed Bournemouth's unilateral decision "ridiculous".

"It'll be 'this is my tip and you can't come here' - let's grow up," she said.

"Soon passports will be required to use the tip. I can't believe that Bournemouth council realised what they were doing."

Cllr Alex Clarke said boundaries between local authorities, often seen as artificial anyway, should not stop the provision of services.

"It seems absolutely crazy that the local authorities won't let them put it where they want to put it," he said.

"Dorset County Council used to include Bournemouth and Poole and dividing them up should make it better, not worse."

Leader of the council Derek Burt said: "It would be a shame if people from Longham and Parley felt it necessary to fly-tip outside Bournemouth Town Hall."

Bournemouth leader Dr John Millward said fly-tippers would be prosecuted.

"We're not doing this to spite anyone," he said. "The government is charging us more and more to get rid of our waste and we're not going to take any overflows any more."

First published: September 2