Derbyshire County Council is planning to close Glossop tip, one of nine council tips across the county
15:55, 15 Jan 2026Updated 16:05, 15 Jan 2026
Further Derbyshire tip closures have not been ruled out and Reform councillors have criticised their own administration’s plan to shut a facility.
One of Derbyshire County Council’s £22.4 million cutbacks for the next financial year is the planned closure of Glossop tip (one of nine in the county and two in the High Peak) to save £360,000, representing 0.04 percent of the authority’s £838 million annual spending budget.
This will be subject to public consultation later this year.
It is claimed the ‘outdated’ faclity needs “substantial investment” to bring up to standard, is largely used by non-Derbyshire residents and does not represent value for money, with another tip elsewhere in the High Peak, in Buxton.
Cllr John Lawson, Reform’s cabinet member for council efficiency, did not answer, when asked, if the administration had run the Glossop tip closure plan past its own group members, and whether it had their support.
This followed a list of more than 20 questions to council officers, scrutinising and criticising the cost-saving plan, primarily from two Reform members, Cllr Isherwood (who represents part of the area) and Cllr Richard Smith.
When pushed on the issue by Conservative Cllr Nigel Gourlay, Cllr Smith intervened, saying: “We have not said yes or no to that question.”
Cllr Smith had said: “I am extremely concerned that Glossop tip, or dump, will be closed.
“It is mostly people not from Derbyshire using it. It was the same in Chesterfield where we had the Sheffield lot coming to use our tip. There we have set up ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras to stop that. Wouldn’t it be useful to do that here?”
He suggested, instead of closure, that the tip remain open for one day a week: “So Glossop can still have somewhere to dump its rubbish.”
Cllr Isherwood asked for alternative options to the closure and said the use by non-Derbyshire residents was “estimated” to be 70 percent.
He said an “estimate” was not the right methodology on which to base a decision.
Cllr Isherwood said the 30-minute driving distance from Glossop to the next nearest Derbyshire council tip in Buxton was rarely a reality, and said even that was not something to be badged as “reasonable”, “because it isn’t”.
He said 60 percent on the Gamesley estate in Glossop, one of the most deprived areas of the county, do not own cars and would not be able to access another tip without significant logistics.
Cllr Isherwood said councils responsible for the areas who use the Glossop tip frequently should “cough up” their share of funding to keep it open.
He also said: “It concerns me that staff only found out about this the day before the news broke. That is treating them appallingly badly, that is horrendous and is a shocking way to treat people who work for us.”
Mr Henning said staff at the tip were employed by HW Martin Waste Ltd, which runs the site on behalf of the council and was not for them to communicate.
Cllr Wayne Major, Conservative opposition deputy leader, asked for confirmation that the remaining eight council tips would be safe from closure.
Chris Henning, the council’s executive director for place, said he had “no additional plans”, while Reform’s finance cabinet member, Cllr Lawson, said he could not rule out any future closures, saying “nobody has got a crystal ball, but I am not looking for more savings by closing tips in our savings plan”.
Cllr Lawson said if the Glossop closure plan was scrapped, other alternative cost-cutting measures would need to be found elsewhere.
Mr Henning said: “There are no palatable alternatives.”
Councillors had a vote on recommending to cabinet that the Glossop tip closure be replaced with other options, but this was lost by three votes for and six against.
Cllr Sarah Reaney, Reform, chairing the meeting, said it was right to hold a consultation first “and we will review it then when their opinions are known”.