I was very pleased to see letters from councillors Jayne Chapman and Graham Steady and Cyril Liddy on the issue of the closure of Martins Farm.

They raised the point that Conservative county councillor Kevin Bentley at county hall took no notice of the thousands of signatures in several petitions, and yet he is going to submit a smaller petition to the same county council in the hope that they will listen.

I support the residents and the people of Fingringhoe to stop the quarry, but I think Mr Bentley should have listened to a Scrutiny Committee, where 14 councillors supported a review of the waste and recycling service.

The same county councillor took no notice of the letters the county council received – more than 90 per cent of those letters were in support of Martins Farm recycling centre.

When the Liberal Democrat county councillors submitted a motion to full council to save Martins Farm last month, seven out of the eight Conservative county councillors in the Tendring area, voted to close this recycling centre.

So all the efforts by local councillors and thousands of residents in Tendring and Wivenhoe was a waste of time.

Many people are angry with the Conservatives and so they should be.

Our petition of many thousands of signatures and hundreds of letters to the Conservative-controlled Essex County Council, had no effect on the decision to save Martins Farm.

The Conservatives did not listen to thousands of residents, who are also voters and taxpayers.

If Mr Bentley ignored our huge petition, then many of his Conservative colleagues will probably ignore the petition from Fingringhoe residents.

Gary Scott
Councillor
Alresford Ward
Tendring Council