Wiltshire backtracks on bring bank cuts

Wiltshire council has scaled back plans to remove all of its 126 bring bank sites in the county after opposition from residents and will now retain 14 in key locations, councillors have been told.

The council first revealed the removal plans last month in a bid to save an estimated 120,000 per year and has now scrapped more than 100 of its banks.

According to Wiltshire council, the sites have been underused due to the success of its kerbside recycling collection service, through which it recycled 68,000 tonnes of material last year. As much as 36,000 tonnes of this material came from the black box and blue lidded bin collections of plastic bottles, cardboard, paper, cans, textiles and glass bottles.

There has also been a fall in the amount of waste taken to the bring banks and the council expects to recycle less than 3,000 tonnes of material through the sites in 2014/15.

After considering comments from residents as part of a public consultation on the plans, however, the council has decided to retain 14 sites in key locations some distance away from household recycling centres for the recycling of glass, cans and paper.

Retained sites

These sites which the council said have contributed to almost half of the tonnage collected through the entire bring bank network in the county will remain open for 12 months while the council assesses their continued viability.

The council added that these 14 sites are in major population centres allowing it more time to focus on improving kerbside recycling in these areas, especially where there are a significant number of flats.

A briefing note sent out to Wiltshire councillors earlier this month states: Following the continuing decline in the performance of these sites the council has now removed more than 100 mini recycling sites across Wiltshire.

However the council has also been able to identify a small number of larger mini recycling sites to be retained in key locations in Wiltshire in order to ensure that residents living in flats and major populations have continued access to mini recycling sites, in support of the kerbside black box service.

The 14 bring bank sites that will remain open are:

• Bradford on Avon Sainsburys
• Calne Pippin Car Park
• Chippenham Sainsburys
• Chippenham Morrisons
• Corsham Car Park
• Devizes Morrisons
• Malmesbury Station Yard Car Park
• Melksham Sainsburys
• Mere
• Warminster Morrisons
• Royal Wootton Bassett Borough fields
• Salisbury Waitrose
• Tidworth Station Car Park
• Tisbury Car Park

The council is not the only authority in England to look at reducing its bring bank sites due to a decline in their use, with Aylesbury district council in February agreeing to remove 80 banks (see letsrecycle.com story) and Cherwell district council recently reducing it banks for the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment (see letsrecycle.com story).

South Derbyshire council is also currently considering the removal of 73 bring sites, after a study found that their usage had declined by more than 50% after the introduction of its new kerbside service in October 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story).