The Municipality of Meaford was caught flat-footed when provincial officials closed down its leaf and yard waste collection site behind the Operations Centre on the 7th Line.

Operations Director Stephen Vokes informed council and the public of the compost closure at Monday night's regular meeting. Ministry officials stepped in and closed the site down to the public after decided the site was in violation of its Certificate of Approval.

Under the Certificate of Approval, the Municipality of Meaford is supposed to upgrade the collection area by constructing some facilities at the site. Due to the tough budget situation in 2008, the municipality has not been able to move forward with approval for that project.

Council is scheduled to hold two all-day budget meetings Tuesday and Wednesday. New Mayor Francis Richardson said the leaf and yard waste site would be near the top of the agenda to be dealt with.

"We had no warning. We were scrambling to find out our options," Vokes told council Monday night.

Local citizens that attempted to drop leaf and yard waste at the site on Monday were greeted with closed signs. The Express office received one inquiry about the situation on Monday afternoon.

"We're advising people to keep their yard waste at their homes for the time being. We will be taking care of the situation immediately," said Vokes.

Mayor Richardson said the compost collection area would be the top item on the agenda at council's budget meeting scheduled for Tuesday. He said once council grants approval to go ahead with the upgrades at the site it should be able to re-open.

"This will become the first item we deal with in the budget. As soon as we're done that, we'll go back to the Minister and hopefully they'll say we're compliant and can re-open the site," said Richardson.