Suffolk county council is considering charging residents to use household waste and recycling centres at risk of closure just weeks after the Somerset Waste Partnership introduced the controversial measure.
The local authority planned to close six sites across the region at the end of May 2011 but this week (April 12) announced plans to review the decision following strong public outcry, which has seen 8,000 letters and opinions issued to the county council.
Suffolk had initially decided in February 2011 to close seven sites as part of a raft of changes to the countys environmental services, which are predicted to create a potential 2.3 million saving from the cash-strapped councils waste budget (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, following public feedback, Suffolk said it would now keep the sites open until July 31 2011 while working with the district and borough councils and Suffolk communities to develop long-term solutions to the closures.
Among the options the council said it would assess are charging to use the sites, as well as investigating the potential for local community groups and parish or district council funding for them.
Commenting on the decision to review the planned closures, Councillor Lisa Chambers, portfolio holder for waste at the council, said: We have made this decision in direct response to the views of Suffolk residents. I have personally attended 14 community meetings and the feedback has been very clear.
People are telling me they are very willing to look at paying for the service rather than lose their site and would like more time to come up with new ways of working. District, parish and town councils have also asked for more time to look at alternative funding opportunities.
Charging
Suffolks decision to consider charging residents to use the sites comes shortly after the Somerset Waste Partnership opted to introduce a fee at four of its recycling centres, which had it had previously intended to close (see letsrecycle.com story).
While some councils, such as Staffordshire county council (see letsrecycle.com story), have expressed concern about the legality of charging residents to use sites, Somerset has changed the legal status of the four sites to community recycling centres to enable a fee-paying system.
The decision by Somerset Waste Partnership is intended to help keep the sites operational but the charging scheme has incurred the wrath of Secretary of State for Communities Eric Pickles, who blasted the six-council partnerships move as counter-productive (see letsrecycle.com story).
Cllr Chambers insisted that Suffolk would not be imposing a charge on residents but was responding to a theme that had emerged from the petitions and public meetings.
The seven sites in question are: Beccles, Bramford, Brome, Chelmondiston, Ingham, Newmarket and Southwold.
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This weeks announcement means that six of the sites are set to remain open until July 31 2011, however, planning permission for Ingham household waste centre is due to run out in May 2011, which means it will still close as planned on May 9 2011.
The cost of keeping the centres open until the end of the July is 180,000 and will be funded from Suffolk county councils Transition Fund. In total, Suffolk operates 18 household waste and recycling centres across the region.
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