Members of the Environment and Communities Committee were divided over the final proposals for how household waste recycling centre services in Cheshire East would be provided in the future.
Cheshire East Council needs to reduce spending by £100 million over the next four years.
At a meeting of the council's environment and communities committee on Thursday 26th September, eight councillors voted in support of the following proposals:
- To maintain sites at Alsager, Crewe, Macclesfield and Knutsford and to retain the mobile HWRC service that has been operating since August – expanding its reach to cover more rural areas.
- Extended weekday opening hours across summer months would also be retained, as would a booking system for visiting HWRCs during weekends and Bank Holidays.
- Bollington, Poynton and Middlewich HWRCs, which are currently under an emergency closure, would not reopen.
Bollington councillors Ken Edwards and Mike Sewart attended the meeting to speak as visiting members and stated that closing 3 of 7 sites would leave a minimum provision across the borough and those in rural areas would face much longer journeys and additional pollution.
Whilst Cllr Sewart stated that there was a need for a site north east of the borough as the drive from Poynton to Macclesfield took 34 minutes, meaning that it would take Disley residents even longer and then there would be significant queues to get in to the Macclesfield site.
He added that the credibility of Cheshire East Council would be questioned and there would be extra costs to the council for additional material in bins and asked the committee to consider keeping, one or both, sites in the north open either fully or on a part time basis.
Cllr Adams provided a statement which was read out by Cllr Clowes saying she had suggested Cheshire East talks to Stockport MBC to agree use of the Marple HWRC, which was 4 miles from Disley, but this had been 'dismissed'.
Members were advised that it was appropriate that the decision was made urgently, and not deferred, in order to avoid causing financial issues and achieve the deadlines set out in the procurement timeline.
