Ranmore Road Community Recycling Centre, near Dorking – photo geograph.org.uk

All of Surrey’s community recycling centres are to be kept open following feedback received by the council from residents.

It is expected that some centres will still close on quieter days of the week.

The change of plan, scheduled to be confirmed at the Cabinet meeting on September 26, is a reversal of a previous decision which the council admits means that they will not now be able to achieve all the hoped-for savings of £2 million, a small part of the £100 million savings the council needs to make to balance the books.

Liberal Democrats welcomed the announcement to scrap the previous “unpopular plans” under which recycling centres in Bagshot, Cranleigh, Dorking and Warlingham would have been closed.

Cllr Mike Goodman

Mike Goodman, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for the environment and planning, said: “We’d like to thank residents for their feedback on our proposals – we’ve listened and as a result I’ll be recommending to the Cabinet that we keep all our community recycling centres open.

“With the county council facing huge financial pressure, due to growing demand for adult social care, children’s services and school places, we expect that we’ll need to close some of our recycling centres on quieter days in the week. And we’ll also have to end the free daily allowance for residents’ construction waste.

“We are finalising the plans at the moment but it is clear that we’ll not now be able to achieve all of the hoped-for £2 million savings. And with the council having to find more than £100 million of savings overall this year we’ll still need to find ways of meeting that shortfall.”

According to a Liberal Democrat press release, the county council has confirmed it will proceed with its plans to reduce the opening hours of all the centres across the county as well as dropping the daily free waste allowance which residents currently enjoy.

County Cllr Stephen Cooksey

Cllr Stephen Cooksey, Lib Dem environment spokesperson, said today (September 14, 2017): “I welcome the news that the Conservatives have backtracked on their unpopular plans to close recycling centres in Bagshot, Cranleigh, Dorking and Warlingham.

“However, I remain concerned that they still plan to significantly reduce the opening hours of all of the sites which makes it harder for residents to do the right thing and dispose of their waste responsibly.

“I also think that the removal of the daily free waste allowance is a huge mistake and could lead to a large increase in fly-tipping. I will continue to campaign for increased opening hours and to scrap the counter productive charges that the Conservatives are intent on implementing”.