Campaign to save recycling centres

GREEN campaigners will find out this week if plans to close two Warrington recycling centres have been given the go-ahead by council chiefs.
Both Stockton Heath and Woolston recycling centres could be shut down as part of the council’s £30million budget spending cut proposals.
After a month of public consultation in January, which included an information video on ‘YouTube’, the council’s Executive Board will meet on Thursday to decide whether to axe the tips or not.
Local green campaigners claim the proposal offers a false economy. They say waste would either end up in the black bin and then be taken to landfill, incurring heavy charges on the council, or would be dumped or fly tipped, damaging the environment and costing the council money to clear up.
The council has a statutory obligation to have one at least one main recycling centre in the borough but currently has three at Stockton Heath, Woolston and Gatewarth.
Nine recycling banks were closed in 2009 after the kerb-side blue bin scheme collected more than 10,000 tonnes of waste in six months but the council promised at the time that the three main recycling centres would not be affected.
John Wesley, from Warrington Friends of the Earth, said: “These two recycling centres take several categories of recyclable waste that the kerb-side collections and the local Recycling Bring Sites do not accept.
“This includes furniture, excess garden waste, electrical items, wood and timber, batteries, and scrap metal. Woolston also takes used engine oil, paint, hardcore and rubble.
“If these sites are closed, the only way to recycle these items will be to take them to the Gatewarth recycling centre, involving a round trip of about seven miles from both Stockton Heath or Woolston, passing through the already crowded town centre and further adding to the traffic at Gatewarth.”
A spokesperson for Warrington Council confirmed that there had been a significant amount of feedback from the public as part of the consultation process and that no decision to close the centres has yet been made.
Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate, Nick Bent, joined Warrington’s Friends of the Earth at a recent protest at Stockton Heath recycling centre.
He said: “The council is crazy to propose closing two of the borough’s three recycling centres, which would put more pressure on the Gatewarth facility at Sankey Bridges and clog up local roads there. This council’s attitude to the environment really is rubbish.”
Picture shows two Friends of the Earth representatives John Wesley and Diane Porter, of Lymm, with Nick Bent, at Stockton Heath recycling centre.