More than 1,000 people have backed a campaign to save a popular waste depot in Watford from closure.

Hertfordshire County Council has resurrected two-year-old plans to shut Wiggenhall Road Household Waste Depot as part of cost cutting measures.

The Conservative-run council must save £150million over the next three years, and closing the site would save approximately £100,000 each year.

Opposition politicians and local residents have now started an online petition to gather support against the proposal before it is presented to the county council's Waste Management Panel on November 16.

If it is approved, it could then be ratified by the council's Cabinet later that month, leading to the depot's closure in February next year.

Alternatives sites are in Riverside Drive, Rickmansworth, or the Waterdale household waste site off the A405 in Garston.

Campaigners fighting to save the site thought they had succeeded two years ago, when Watford Borough Council agreed to hand over additional land to make the depot more user-friendly.

However, the county council said the deal was “never completed” while the borough council said county was “dragging its heels”.

Helen Lynch, the Liberal Democrat's candidate for the Central Ward by-election, said: “This is a popular and important local facility. It is very disappointing that the county council are once again threatening to close it.

“Last time local residents and the Lib Dem team led by county councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst campaigned successfully to keep it open. Now the Tory-run county council has refused to expand the site with the offer of free land from the Lib Dem borough council and wants to once again close it. We are determined to win this battle once again.

"I have already informed the county council that I wish to present this petition, which I hope by then will have 2,000 signatures on it, to the full county council meting on October 12."

Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Lib Dem, Central Watford and Oxhey) added: “This is a well used facility. Over 4,000 tones of items taken there last year and 70 per cent of that recycled. We will fight to keep it."

To sign the petition, visit http://tinyurl.com/wiggenhall.