Hampshire residents may have to pay to use council tips to prevent them from closing or cutting their opening hours.

The county council has today unveiled proposals to launch a pay-as-you-go system, with people being charged £1 every time they use one of the household waste recycling centres.

The council must find ways of slashing its budget by £140 million by April 2019 and are meeting today to debate a raft of cost-cutting measures that aim to help the authority meet its target.

Proposals presented to the meeting include dimming streetlights at night, reducing the number of school crossing patrols and axing bus subsidies.

The controversial cuts aim to save tens of millions of pounds.

Members of the public who addressed the meeting cited the "madness" of closing tips, warning that fly-tipping in the county would increase if the proposal went ahead.

One protester said: "Please try harder for less drastic alternatives."

Other speakers said plans to axe bus subsidies would increase the sense of social isolation felt by older residents who were no longer able to drive.

County council leader Roy Perry said a charge for using recycling centres would eliminate the only alternative - closing up to half the tips.

He also announced that town and parish councils that wanted to "rise to the challenge" and provide more services themselves would be given a one-off payment to help them do so.

But Cllr Keith House, a member of the Liberal Democrat group and leader of Eastleigh Borough Council, said the people of Hampshire were being let down by the "financial incompetence" of the ruling Tories.

Urging the authority to think again he said: "It's a very dark day for Hampshire and a very dark day for this county council."

Cllr Tonia Craig said it would be irresponsible to withdraw funding for school crossing patrols.

She said it would increase the risk of accidents - and the number of children who were driven to school.

The debate will continue this afternoon.