‘£80k savings from recycling merger’

3:18pm Tuesday 20th May 2008

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CLOSING a recycling centre in Ryedale will result in savings of £80,000 a year, a council chief has said.

Coun Clare Wood, North Yorkshire County Council's executive member for business and environmental services, said the savings would come from the closure of the site in Norton when the service is moved to a site in Malton. She was replying to criticism of the closure, which is due to go ahead next month.

The move has been criticised by Coun David Lloyd Williams, Norton's representative at County Hall and the town's mayor, who said he had not been informed of the closure, now planned for June 11. The town council, of which he is also a member, had also not been consulted, he claimed.

He said: "While accepting that there is a cost in retaining the two sites, in a growing move towards greater recycling and measured disposal of household and other waste, it seems madness to centralise a provision when plans are afoot to increase the number of houses in the Malton and Norton area causing even more chaos across the County Bridge."

Coun Lloyd Williams has called for a review of the decision. He said he was also concerned about the potential increase in flytipping.

In reply, Coun Wood said news of the pending closure of the recycling unit had been reported in the press earlier this year, and that Norton Town Council had responded.

Performance at the existing sites was below average. "Neither site is large enough to be able to offer the full range of services available at larger sites," she said.