Public consultation on proposals for changes to Cumbria's Household Waste Recycling Centres

Overview

The council is dealing with the most significant ever reductions to its budget. We have to find ways to save money. Last year we confirmed our priorities for the future were about tackling poverty, supporting vulnerable people and improving the chances in life of the most disadvantaged. That has focussed our minds on where we should look to find savings.

That’s why we have reviewed our provision of household waste recycling centres. Our review has shown that our current provision, although very well run, is expensive and significant savings could be made that would bring us into line with other parts of the country.

We are proposing to:

1. Close six of the county’s least used household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) in 2012
2. Move to seasonal opening hours
3. Close sites on the least used days of Thursday and Friday
4. Introduce a mobile household waste recycling service to offset the impact of closures
5. Introduce charges for disposal of soil, rubble, asbestos, plasterboard and car tyres

We are already committed to investing in a new state-of-the-art HWRC in Lillyhall as part of West Cumbria HWRC improvement programme. This will involve the closures of Frizington and Workington HWRCs when the new site is operational in 2013