Witney News - Residents urged to respond to household waste recycling centres closure proposals

Residents urged to respond to household waste recycling centres closure proposals

With only days to go before Oxfordshire County Council’s household waste recycling centres consultation ends, West Oxfordshire residents are being urged to speak up regarding the proposed closure of Dix Pit, near Stanton Harcourt and other centres.

Oxfordshire County Council is proposing to reduce the number of their centres from seven to three or four, and to change the opening hours of the remaining sites in order to save £350,000 from its budget by 2017/18.

The three areas identified by the County Council to have a Household Waste and Recycling Centre are:

· Central North Oxfordshire - this will mean closing Ardley and Alkerton and replacing with a new site
· Central Oxfordshire - this would mean expanding or replacing Redbridge
· Central South Oxfordshire - this would mean expanding or replacing Drayton.

These proposals do not include retaining the one remaining centre (Dix Pit) in West Oxfordshire. However, if the opening hours are reduced across all the sites, Oxfordshire County Council has said it may be able to offer a fourth site.

Councillor David Harvey, Cabinet Member for Environment at West Oxfordshire District Council said: “When the proposals are considered by the Council’s Cabinet on 14 October I will be urging my colleagues to make the most robust response possible in relation to what is overall a short term cost gain for Oxfordshire County Council that is likely to have a long term negative and harmful effect on the environment. It would severely hinder residents and local businesses in West Oxfordshire resulting in much longer journeys and fewer options for recycling and disposing of waste. We have already seen this with the closure of Dean Pit near Chipping Norton and believe strongly that the County Council must re-consider their plans for any further closures across all of Oxfordshire.

The consultation, led by Oxfordshire County Council, ends on 5 October. For more information see: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk