Hampshire has nowhere in the county to dispose of its toxic waste as rubbish tips have been closed under new European rules.

Thousands of tonnes of hazardous rubbish are now being trucked to a licensed site in Bristol under the changes which are predicted to increase costs and illegal fly-tipping.

The Government has been blamed for failing to plan ahead to cope with the cut in sites from 218 to 10, with none in Hampshire or the South-East.

A new EU directive outlaws the previous UK practice of mixing toxic waste with ordinary rubbish to dilute it - a practise already abandoned in much of Europe as too unsafe.

Keith Mitchell, chairman of the SE England Regional Assembly's planning committee, said: "It is disappointing that so little effective progress has been made. The Government should have seen the the problem coming.

"It has had plenty of time to put an effective programme in place. It now needs to encourage and help the private sector to invest in new facilities to manage hazardous waste.

"There has been delay and complacency in government circles and a tendency to blame others. This must stop if we are to avoid another fridge mountain."

Under the new rules, toxic rubbish has to be treated with chemicals to neutralise it, mixed with concrete to prevent it leaching away, or burnt in high temperature destroy it.

In addition to industrial waste, discarded television sets, mobile phones, old cars, garden pesticides and herbicides will be classified as hazardous waste.

The EU directive was agreed in 1999. All landfill sites now have to be classified as inert, non-hazardous or hazardous.

A county council spokesman said the authority was geared up for the change in rules. A deal had been struck for a plant in Bristol to process 600 tonnes of cement-bounded asbestos and 4,800 tonnes of other hazardous waste over the next year.

"These plants is they are specialised and expensive. It would not be realistic to have a number dotted around the county for what is a relatively small tonnage."

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth said: "We support the directive because hazardous waste needs to be disposed of in a way that protects the environment."

She said trucking rubbish many miles violated the proximity principle which says waste should be disposed of as close as possible to where it originated.

But she added: "We want local communities to be involved in any decisions about location of these disposal sites and not be forced into anything because of a shortage."