Cheshire East Council is currently considering four options for the future of its household waste recycling centre provision to enable them to make savings.
The Authority currently has nine sites in the borough and has been considering closing some, reducing opening hours and introducing new charges to generate an income.
Don Stockton, Regeneration Portfolio Holder, said "We need to make crucial decisions to ensure our household waste centres provide the best value for money option to residents. This consultation is focused on a specific service, but it is clearly linked to the wider Pre-Budget Consultation document published last week that set out the Council's response to potential medium term funding reductions for the period 2017 to 2020."
The first option being considered is to close their smallest and least efficient sites at Arclid and Poynton and make additional savings through reducing opening times.
The sites are currently open 12 hours in summer (May to August 8am - 8pm), 8 hours in winter (November to February, 8am - 4pm) and 10 hours in spring/ autumn (March, April, September and October, 8am - 6pm). The proposal is to reduce the opening hours at all sites to 8.30 - 5pm summer (April-September) and 8.30 - 4pm in winter (October – March). They would also close minor sites two days a week, introduce charitable reuse shops at the three largest sites (Crewe, Macclesfield and Knutsford) and generate an income by opening the sites to trade waste from small traders in the construction industry. This would provide estimated savings of £775,000.
Option two would reduce the number of sites to three (Crewe, Macclesfield and Knutsford) while maintaining the current opening hours. They would also generate income by introducing a charge for the deposit of non household waste in the rubble skip. This would provide estimated savings of £960,000.
Option three includes closing Arclid and Poynton and generating an income by introducing a charge for the deposit of non household waste in the rubble skip. Additionally savings would be made through reducing opening times but keeping all sites open seven days a week. Charitable reuse shops would be opened at Crewe, Macclesfield and Knutsford and income would be generated by opening sites to trade waste from small traders in the construction industry. This would provide estimated savings of £1,022,000.
The final option, which is the Council preferred option, is to close Arclid only, which the smallest and least efficient site, from the 1st April 2017. Additionally they would generate income by introducing a charge for the deposit of non household waste in the rubble skip and opening sites to trade waste from small traders in the construction industry. Whilst savings would be made through reducing opening times but keeping all sites open seven days a week. This would provide estimated savings of £726,000.
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