{"id":313218,"date":"2025-12-13T03:16:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T03:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/313218\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T03:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T03:16:28","slug":"two-wiltshire-recycling-centres-to-close-due-to-unjustifiable-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/313218\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Wiltshire recycling centres to close due to \u2018unjustifiable\u2019 cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Members of Wiltshire Council<\/a>\u2019s Liberal Democrat-led Cabinet voted today (Tuesday, December 9) to close recycling centres at Purton and Lower Compton, near Calne, following a debate about waste management that lasted four hours.\n<\/p>\n

\n The facilities will close from 1 August 2026 when the contract with a private operator expires.\n<\/p>\n

\n They will be replaced by a new council-run Household Recycling Centre in the north of the county \u2013 but that is unlikely to be operational until the end of 2028.\n<\/p>\n

\n With members parish councillors, environmental activists, and opposition councillors in the room to scrutinise the Cabinet\u2019s decision, the discussion was at times heated.\n<\/p>\n

\n And three councillors inadvertently confirmed that the new HRC will be built on council-owned land in Royal Wootton Bassett \u2013 although the exact details were discussed behind closed doors with members of the press and public excluded.\n<\/p>\n

\n What is confirmed is that the closure of the existing facilities is driven by the \u201cunjustifiable\u201d amount of money the private operator demanded to keep the sites open.\n<\/p>\n

\n Purton and Lower Compton are the two of 10 HRCs not owned by Wiltshire Council<\/a>. The land is owned by Swindon-headquartered Hills Waste Services, which is contracted to run them on the council\u2019s behalf.\n<\/p>\n

\n But, said Cllr Paul Sample, cabinet member for waste, the quote from Hills for operating the service after the current contract expires at the end of July 2026 had \u201cincreased significantly\u201d and the council was being expected to foot the bill for improvements at the site.\n<\/p>\n

\n Gavin Grant, the cabinet member for finance, was so angry about the cost he had to stop himself from swearing.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am very\u2026 off about the situation we find ourselves in today,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen I saw the numbers involved I thought it was a typing error. And the expectation was that council taxpayers would pay that cost.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cCould I justify the cost of continuing Purton and Lower Compton? No. I. Could. Not.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n And Cllr Ian Thorn, leader of the council, said: \u201cThe cost of the two sites is utterly unjustifiable. Costs have been increased enormously.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe enormity of the increases is such that if we don\u2019t make these measures now we may well struggle to balance our budget in February.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur responsibility is to move at pace to make sure there is a facility in the north of the county as quickly as we can deliver it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n While residents in the north wait for their new recycling centre to open, their nearest facilities will be at Marlborough, and at Stanton St Quintin near Malmesbury.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of Wiltshire Council\u2019s Liberal Democrat-led Cabinet voted today (Tuesday, December 9) to close recycling centres at Purton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-313218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}