Councillor defends recycling cut decision

North Yorkshire County Council announced last month that it was enforcing closures every Wednesday from July at its 19 household waste recycling centres.

The decision will save £210,000 as the council battles to make £69m in cuts across all its services, although there are worries that the move could increase illegal fly-tipping.

But the council’s executive member for environmental services, Coun Chris Metcalfe, maintained detailed analysis had been carried out to establish which days the recycling centres were used the least.

He said: “The decision was not taken lightly, and a great deal of work was done to establish the time of the week when the centres were used the least.

“It is another sign of the initiatives we are having to take to reduce costs, but the council remains committed to protecting the environment in any way we can.”

A council spokesman stressed more than 20 possible options for reducing operating hours at the recycling centres, which cost £5.1m to run each year, had been investigated.

About £2.1m relates to the actual operation of the sites, with recycling, composting or disposing of the 80,000 tonnes of waste delivered to the network costing the additional £3m.

The reduction in opening hours will cut the operating costs by 10 per cent.

The first mid-week closure will take place on Wednesday next week and from then onwards the centres will be shut each Wednesday.

Promoting environmental sustainability was identified as one of its the authority’s key aims in the latest council plan, which was published this month to provide a vision up until 2014.