A six-week consultation has been launched on how household waste recycling centre services in Cheshire East could be provided in the future. 

Cheshire East Council wants to deliver a service that enables residents to recycle and dispose of their waste responsibly but is also within the limits of what is affordable over the coming years.

This is in the context of needing to address a four-year funding gap of £100m while continuing to support those who need help the most across the borough. 

No final decision on how household waste recycling centre ( HWRC ) services are provided in the future has yet been made, and the council is now consulting on ideas and proposals so that a final recommendation can be developed. 

The consultation will close on 16 June 2024. Take part. 

Councillor Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council's environment and communities committee, said: "The council currently runs seven  HWRCs across the borough and these provide a variety of services to our residents. 

"All sites need major investment to ensure that they are well-equipped and up to modern standards, and this is on top of the significant annual running costs of the sites, which continue to rise. 

"A key aspect of the final recommendation that is developed for HWRCs will be a focus on delivering a service that promotes waste prevention and reduction ...

"Setting the council's medium-term financial strategy ( MTFS ) for 2024-2028 and agreeing our budget for 2024/25 was extremely challenging, and to protect essential services we must continue to make very difficult decisions about how key services in the borough are delivered. 

"This includes  HWRCs – any savings not delivered through this service review must be found elsewhere.  

"A key aspect of the final recommendation that is developed for  HWRCs will be a focus on delivering a service that promotes waste prevention and reduction so that ultimately, less waste ends up at our  HWRCs and the impact on the environment is reduced. 

"We also have the opportunity to look at how we can make the service more accessible for people who don't drive and for those that live in more rural areas where they are further away from a HWRCs ." 

To inform the  HWRC consultation, the council commissioned industry experts to assess the management and operation of  HWRCs in Cheshire East, which included assessing four core options for the future of the service. 

These options were presented to the environment and communities committee in September last year and were approved for public consultation. 

The options, which people are now invited to share their views on, are: 

• All  HWRCs remain open as they are now.  
• Poynton  HWRC is closed.  
• Bollington  HWRC is closed. 
• Bollington, Middlewich and Poynton  HWRCs are closed.

The council is also asking people for their feedback on introducing mobile HWRCs , which some other councils already have and usually consist of staffed collection vehicles that visit public spaces once a month on a rotating schedule. 

Feedback is also sought on introducing a booking system, which would manage people's waiting times and the flow of traffic into the sites. 

The final recommendation presented back to the environment and communities committee in autumn this year will consider the outcome of the public consultation, the affordability of the options presented, and up to date site user data. This data includes visitor numbers for each HWRC , and information about where people are travelling from to the different sites. 

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