PORTISHEAD'S civic amenity site could be reopened after it was closed for safety reasons due to the number of residents demanding a place to dump their waste. Some residents have simply been throwing their household rubbish over the walls of Black Rock Qu

PORTISHEAD'S civic amenity site could be reopened after it was closed for safety reasons due to the number of residents demanding a place to dump their waste.Some residents have simply been throwing their household rubbish over the walls of Black Rock Quarry's tip since it was closed because the quarry's rockface was deemed unsafe. Now, North Somerset Council chiefs want to reopen a slice of the civic amenity site to try to stop people fly tipping and give residents somewhere to put their waste.The Portishead site was closed earlier this month after inspectors said the rockface was unstable. Many residents have been driving as far as Weston-super-Mare to dump their rubbish.Work on the rockface will not start until August because a family of rare peregrine falcons is nesting in the rocks.Council officers have been trying to open an emergency site but say by the time they could open one, the Black Rock site would open again because of environmental restrictions on opening new sites.At a meeting of the authority's executive committee this week, David Turner, director of development and environment, said he knew opening part of the site could result in huge traffic queues but insisted it was the best option.He said: "We have entered into urgent discussions with the Environment Agency about what can be done."We have been advised that an emergency provision will not be able to be put in place before work takes place at Black Rock."We need to look at the partial opening of the Portishead site, and we have looked at highway safety and queuing of vehicles on the road with the police."Our priority is to look at partial reopening. We cannot do the work until the end of August and it is now about handling the situation until then.