Community recycling sites to be cut back in Mid Wales

The cabinet approved plans designed to reduce costs and improve the quality of recycling throughout the county.

Powys has approximately 80 community recycling sites, also known as bring sites, for residents to take recyclable materials.

Councillor John Powell, cabinet member for environment and sustainability, said: "Since the roll-out of the kerbside recycling all households now have their recycling collected from the kerbside and this has resulted in a duplication of service which is not cost effective.

"The cost of operating these community sites is more than £300,000 a year and as with other councils in Wales their use has reduced since the introduction of kerbside recycling.

"We will now review the provision of these sites across the county following a detailed assessment on an area by area basis."

The cabinet also approved removing rural refuse storage containers to increase kerbside recycling and reduce fly tipping.

Rural refuse storage containers, also known as point bins, were originally provided for residents to store black bags prior to the then weekly collection.

Councillor Powell added: "With the rollout of the three-weekly residual waste collection, these point bins are no longer fit for purpose.

"In many cases they are used to fly tip and dump excess black sacks which is a blight on the countryside, hits our recycling targets and adds collection and disposal costs.

"Point bins will be removed wherever practicable and if possible, replaced with a wheeled bin for each property at the collection points.

"Providing an equitable service across Powys households will ensure that all residents contribute towards reaching targets and avoiding potential fines."

Councillor Graham Brown said he hoped the council would deal with the situation sensibly and delicately because it will be a controversial issue in some areas, particularly when looking at the point bins, he warned.

Councillor Arwel Jones said in his opinion and in local people's opinions reducing these sites will increase fly tipping and he said he feared the savings the council would make on closing the recycling sites they would have to spend on fly tipping collections.

But Councillor Powell said: "There is always a perception that when you take something away or do something differently that fly tipping occurs but in most cases it does not.

"If people don't have the facility they will not fly tip there and then they have to recycle. The more you make people recycle, the more they will recycle. We do have some people in society who are too lazy to recycle and they do dump material at these sites.

But she said if the council is to remove them they must have a real communication plan to tell people where their nearest facilities are and why the facilities are being withdrawn.

Councillor John Brunt said in some rural areas where householders do not use a box system but use the bag system for waste, there is still a case for bring sites and he said he was glad it would be dealt with on an area by area case with consultation with the local member.

Councillor John Morris, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said the income generated from these being sites goes back into the local community and with the council cutting back on some services, this would be a double whammy for some areas.

The cabinet agreed to review and reduce bring sites and point bins but emphasised that they do not envision taking all the sites away.