Cumbria scraps plans to close half of its HWRCs

Cumbria county council had been planning to close eight of the countys 14 recycling centres and build one new one under prosposals launched for consultation in January 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, after listening to voices of opposition within the 2,600 responses received, the councils cabinet has now agreed on a less severe package of savings which will see the opening hours of the recycling centres scales back instead. The council hopes this will save 1.5m a year by 2013/14.

The new measures, which will be introduced later in the year once the necessary changes have been made to the countys 25-year waste contract with Shanks, include:

• All HWRCs move to seasonal opening hours (9am – 6pm April to September; 9am – 4pm October to March).
• Carlisle, Barrow, Kendal and Flusco HWRCS to reduce to opening 5 days per week (including weekends as they are the busiest periods). Frizington and Workington will also reduce to opening 5 days per week (including weekends) until they are closed and replaced by the new HWRC at Lillyhall (which will also be open 5 days per week including weekends).
• Maryport and Ulverston reduce to opening 4 days per week (including weekends).
• Millom, Ambleside, Wigton, Brampton, Grange and Kirkby Stephen to reduce to opening two days per week (one day during the week and one day at weekends).

The council said the changes will be subject to the negotiations with Shanks and will be reviewed in due course after analysing site usage and waste streams.

Fairer

Cllr Tim Knowles, Cumbria county councils cabinet member responsible for environment, said: “The new arrangements are fairer for everyone and spread the burden of having to make savings across the whole HWRC network rather than going for all-out closure on any single sites. In the consultation people told us that they would rather have a site thats available less often than no site at all, so thats what were delivering.

“In an ideal world we wouldnt have to cut our opening hours or our days, but in a financial climate where the council has had to make 44m of savings last year, plus over 20m this year, something has to give. When we originally consulted over a year ago on the idea in principle of reducing HWRC provision, around half the public supported it. It was only when specific sites were identified for closure that the voice of opposition became audible.

Cllr Knowles added that the new reduced hours enabled the council to strike the best possible balance between making significant savings and still providing a service with appropriate levels of access as Cumbria has one of the highest numbers of HWRCs per head of population of any county.

He said: “The new opening hours we have now agreed will mean that the public will need to plan ahead more than they currently do when using a site and the council will need to clearly communicate its new opening hours when they come into force. The message is simple – we still want you to recycle and we still want you to use your tip, but check its open before loading up the car and setting off.”