Waste site opening hours cut to save money

The council currently provides 19 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) across the county, at an annual cost of £5.1m.

Around £2.1m of this cost relates to providing and operating the sites, with the remaining £3m being the cost of recycling, composting or disposing of the 80,000 tonnes of waste delivered to the network.

Faced with significant financial pressures, the council says it is to introduce a “modest reduction” in the opening hours, which will cut the operating costs by 10 per cent.

A spokesman for the county council said: “We currently offer a very high level of service provision, with the sites open every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day.

“We investigated more than 20 possible options for reducing operating hours, and consulted site users throughout February on the two options that we considered would have the least impact.

“More than 4,000 users responded to the consultation and 87 per cent of those preferred the option to close all HWRCs on the quietest weekday.

“As a result, we have decided to operate the network on six days per week from Friday, July 1, with all centres closed on Wednesdays.”

The council promises it will maintain the current standards of service that deliver an accessible, high quality, customer-focused service, and says it will continue to divert around 70 per cent of waste from landfill. It says it will also continue to expand the range of materials accepted for recycling or composting at the HWRCs whenever it is financially sound to do so.

The first mid-week closure will take place on Wednesday, July 6 and centres will be closed each Wednesday after that. They will also continue to close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.