People living in the Nadder Valley, Tisbury, Fovant and Chalke Valley face the charge if they want to use their closest Household Recycling Centre, which is over the Dorset border in Shaftsbury.
They face having to pay the charge at Shaftsbury – which is eight miles from Tisbury, the largest village in the area – or taking a longer drive to use Wiltshire’s HRCs in Warminster (13 miles) or Salisbury (14 miles).
At last week’s full council meeting of Wiltshire Council, Cllr Bridget Wayman (Conservative, Nadder Valley) made a plea to Paul Sample, the Lib Dem administration’s cabinet member for waste.
She said Dorset Council wanted to charge residents from outside the county for using their recycling centres from November 3.
“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.”
She argued that a deal between Dorset and Wiltshire would be ‘cost neutral’ as Wiltshire would have to pay for the disposal of recyclables if residents used HRCs in their county.
Responding, Cllr Sample said Wiltshire Council was working on a waste strategy that could include cross-border arrangements with other councils, but this could not be done on a location-by-location basis.
It would not be appropriate to put in place a special arrangement, at an additional cost to the council, with one of the neighbouring councils when Wiltshire residents living in other parts of the county may experience similar restrictions,” he said.