A pre-booking system could be introduced for Household Recycling Centres in Wiltshire as part of a major review that is also considering the closure of two tips.
Wiltshire Council is looking at a “phased rollout of a booking system.”
It says a booking system will “help reduce queues, cut emissions, and make visits easier and quicker for everyone, especially at sites where residents have told us congestion can be a significant problem and are causing safety issues on the highways.”
Pre-booking for household recycling centres was first introduced during the pandemic. The system ran from July 2020 until July 2021.
At the same time, the council is considering the closure of two HRCs in the north of the county – at Lower Compton near Calne, and at Purton.
The council owns eight of the ten HRCs in Wiltshire. The two being considered for closure are operated by Swindon-headquartered Hills Waste Solutions.
The council says it will consult the public before making a decision on the closure of the Hills HRCs.
“We want to understand how these closures would impact on individual residents’ access to recycling centre facilities,” said a spokesperson.”
The closure of the Purton recycling centre would mean residents living in the far north of the county – including Cricklade and Ashton Keynes – would face a drive south to Marlborough, or south west to Stanton St Quintin near Chippenham.
There is a closer recycling centre – at Swindon’s Cheyney Manor Industrial Estate – but that is only open to Swindon taxpayers.
The council is known to be keen on exploring cross-border co-operation with neighbouring local authorities with a view to allow residents to use their nearest recycling centre – even if it is not in the county in which they live.
In October the cabinet was told that residents in south Wiltshire were being charged to use their closest HRC – in Shaftsbury, Dorset.
The alternative was to use their nearest Wiltshire HRC in Salisbury, which is nearly twice as far away from residents of Nadder Valley, Tisbury, Fovant and Chalke Valley.
“Either Wiltshire residents will have to travel to Warminster or Salisbury to dispose of their recycling, or they will have to pay the charge when they are already going to Shaftesbury to do their shopping,” Cllr Bridget Wayman (Conservative, Nadder Valley) told the Cabinet.
The ideas will be discussed at a meeting of the council’s Cabinet next Tuesday, December 9.
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