New mobile household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) are being considered by Cheshire East Council amid plans to change its service.
The staffed mobile centres would visit “public spaces” once a month around the borough, says the authority.
Other plans include closing one or more of Bollington, Middlewich and Poynton HWRCs and introducing a booking system to manage people’s waiting times and flow of traffic into existing sites like Pyms Lane in Crewe.
The cash-strapped authority has started a six-week public consultation seeking people’s views on the options as it looks to make savings on the service.
It currently has a four-year funding gap of £100 million.
The consultation will close on June 16 2024 and can be accessed via cheshireeast.gov.uk/hwrcconsultation
Cllr Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council’s environment and communities committee, said: “The council currently runs seven HWRCs across the borough and these provide a variety of services to our residents.
“All sites need major investment to ensure that they are well-equipped and up to modern standards, and this is on top of the significant annual running costs of the sites, which continue to rise.
“Setting the council’s medium-term financial strategy (MTFS) for 2024-2028 and agreeing our budget for 2024/25 was extremely challenging, and to protect essential services we must continue to make very difficult decisions about how key services in the borough are delivered.
“This includes HWRCs – any savings not delivered through this service review must be found elsewhere.
“A key aspect of the final recommendation that is developed for HWRCs will be a focus on delivering a service that promotes waste prevention and reduction so that ultimately, less waste ends up at our HWRCs and the impact on the environment is reduced.
“We also have the opportunity to look at how we can make the service more accessible for people who don’t drive and for those that live in more rural areas where they are further away from a HWRC.”
CEC commissioned industry experts to assess the management and operation of its recycling centres which included assessing four core options for the future.
These options were presented to the environment and communities committee in September 2023 and were approved for public consultation.
Ditto
Book to use the tip – so when no spaces available, fly tipping will increase! In turn costing more to dispose of the waste. CEC are really good at joined up thinking!
The main cause is no investment over the years.Instead of updating the infrastructure example Leighton hospital which is basically falling down.The same with the council tips excetra.They leave everything till it is not practical to repair or just shut it down.How does that help rate payers,instead having local amenities.WE have to travel further a field.How does that HELP LOCAL rate payers?
Not correct. The PM withdrew funding for Leighton at the last minute for the structural problems at Leighton Hospital putting lives at risk. As a Good Emergency Treatment Centre , a comparative risk assessment means services have to be maintained at Leighton. When Sunak loses the election , he will exit the country with his family leaving the tax payer to carry the can as usual.