COUNTY Council officials should come clean about their plans for a new bulky household waste dump for Bridport.

That was the demand at Tuesday's annual town meeting when there were renewed calls to end the secrecy surrounding a possible site to replace the "temporary" depot at South Street.

Coun Keith Cast reiterated his plea for local councillors to be kept more fully informed about which locations were being investigated.

"This is not a very open form of democracy," he said. "When residents ask us questions it is embarrassing when we don't know anything about it."

Coun Cast said that following reports from residents in St Andrew's Road he had pressed the county council about their ground stability survey on land next to the former Par Acoustics plant.

And they had confirmed they were looking at the site as a possible household waste dump along with the one already identified in Burton Road.

But town clerk Roger Davies said this was only one of a series of sites being investigated. Until negotiations were finalised with land owners the town council would not be officially told.

Coun Humphrey Dibdin said: "We don't want a site that's viable to be put in danger because information was prematurely released. We don't want any solution to this long standing problem put in danger."

But resident Simon Williams deplored the lack of information about possible waste sites and called for more "open government".

He said the officers seemed totally obsessed about a very small number of possible locations.

He said the land at St Andrews Well was totally unsuitable and a household waste facility there was likely to cause an outcry.

Bridport county councillor Sandra Brown said it was a very difficult problem because it was very much a question of "not in my back yard".

She said the location of any possible new site had not yet been presented to the county council's committees. "It is some way down the line - they are looking at lots of sites," she said.

Coun Dibdin said that during negotiations it would be absurd to reveal the details.

"This obsession with having information revealed is quite unnecessary."

And he added: "I am sure Mr Williams would not want an appropriate site put out of operation because someone revealed something inappropriate.

"Don't let's undermine a proper search for a site which is absolutely essential."

Coun Phil Lathey said revealing details now was putting the cart before the horse. A geological survey had to be carried out and that could take four to five months.

"Until the results of the survey there is no point in going forward," he said.