Opening hours at North Yorkshire County Council’s household waste recycling centres are to be reduced slightly from the beginning of July 2011.
The council provides 19 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) across the county, at an annual cost of £5.1 million. Around £2.1m of this cost relates to providing and operating the sites, with the remaining £3m being the cost of recycling, composting or disposing of the 80,000 tonnes of waste delivered to the network.
Faced with significant financial pressures, the council is to introduce a modest reduction in the opening hours, which will cut the operating costs by 10%.
“We currently offer a very high level of service provision, with the sites open every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day,” said a spokesman for the county council.
“We investigated more than 20 possible options for reducing operating hours, and consulted site users throughout February on the two options that we considered would have the least impact.
“More than 4,000 users responded to the consultation and 87% of those preferred the option to close all HWRCs on the quietest weekday. As a result, we have decided to operate the network on 6 days per week from July 1, with all centres closed on Wednesdays.”
The council will maintain the current standards of service that deliver an accessible, high quality, customer focused service, and will continue to divert around 70% of waste from landfill. It will also continue to expand the range of materials accepted for reuse, recycling or composting at the HWRCs whenever it is financially sound to do so.
The first mid-week closure will take place on Wednesday 6 July 2011, and centres will be closed each Wednesday after that. They will also continue to close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. Extensive publicity will be undertaken in the next few months to ensure all site users are aware of the changes.
To find the location of your nearest HWRC or to check opening times, visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/hwrc or telephone the Customer Services Centre on 0845 8727374.
