Two Suffolk household waste recycling sites are to be temporarily spared the axe, it was promised last night.

The sites at Beccles and Southwold were due to close on May 9 as part of �42.5m Suffolk County Council cuts for 2011/12.

However, both centres will now stay open until November after Waveney District Council agreed to step into the funding gap last night.

Councillors approved a plan to hand over up to �140,000 to the county council and contractors WRG to keep running the sites for six months from May 10.

Waveney's leader Mark Bee said the six month reprieve would give people in Southwold and Beccles time to draw up plans to take over running both of their recycling centres if they wanted to. There was also a possibility a commercial company could become involved in taking over the Southwold centre.

Waveney hopes to find the �140,000 from savings but has not ruled out dipping into its reserves of about �2m to fund the six month operation.

Mr Bee said if the sites were closed Waveney would lose more than �140,000 in clearing up fly tipping and from reduced recycling credits.

The leader of Labour opposition group, John Shanahan, said the ruling Conservatives had acted cynically as an election was coming up in May.