Surrey council announces proposed HWRC cuts

The council has launched a consultation on the proposals, and residents have been asked for their views on options for making savings from the sites – known locally as Community Recycling Centres (CRCs).

It is noted that the council faces ‘severe financial pressure’ from falling government funding and ‘rising demand’ for services such as children’s and adult social care and school places. The authority said it needs to save more that £100 million this year alone.

Savings

According to the council, despite having achieved £450m worth of savings since 2010, “changes to services are still needed to deliver the required savings.”

The county currently has 15 CRCs where 113,000 tonnes of waste and recycling are taken every year, the council reports. And, savings have already been made by reducing opening days and hours opening reuse shops at larger sites and introducing charges for larger amounts of non-household waste.

Proposals put forward include ending the free daily allowance of non-household waste; closing CRCs on two weekdays, meaning all sites are open for five days a week; ensuring CRCs in Camberley and Farham are only used by Surrey residents; and restricting users of vans, trailers and pick-ups to larger CRCs only.

The authority also proposes to close four smaller, ‘less efficient’ CRCs, sited at Bagshot, Cranleigh, Warlingham and Dorking.

Above: Mike Goodman announces the council’s plans to save up to £2 million-a-year from community recycling centres

‘tough decisions’

Commenting on the plans, Mike Goodman, Surrey county council’s cabinet member for environment and planning, said: “We face very tough decisions and we very much regret having to make these proposals but we have to save more than £100million this year alone, including £2million from community recycling centres, to deal with rising demand for things like children’s services, adult social care and school places.

“Despite that, our proposals would mean there would still be a comprehensive network of CRCs across the county and we will also continue our work to tackle fly-tipping which has dropped by more than 1,000 tonnes over the past year.”

The announcement is the latest of measures proposed by Surrey county council to save costs to its waste and recycling service. In January the council proposed creating a single-tier waste disposal and collection service, in a move to alleviate rising landfill and EfW costs. (see letsrecycle.com story)