12:30pm Friday 10th November 2006
By Jill Crooks
Hills Minerals and Waste have been granted permission to extend the operating hours at its waste recycling facility near Compton Bassett.
Hills had applied for a 6am start Monday to Saturday instead of 7am and to finish at 8pm instead of 6pm. The centre currently opens until 12noon on Saturdays. The company also applied to open the centre from 7am to 6pm on Sundays and public holidays when previously it did not operate.
Wiltshire County Council's regulatory committee agreed a compromise for an extension of the hours to protect nearby residents but the site will in future be open seven days a week.
The new hours, agreed by the regulatory committee, mean the centre will operate between 7am and 8pm Monday to Friday and 7am to 1pm on Saturday, although waste can be offloaded until 8pm on Saturdays.
The centre can also open on Sundays and bank holidays between 7am and 6pm for waste to be off loaded but not processed.
The centre takes waste and recyclable materials from all over Wiltshire and the extension in hours was sought because of the increase in recycling by householders.
Hills has operated the centre since 1996 when it was awarded the Wiltshire waste contract.
Alan Feist, the county council's assistant director of environmental services, said: "Encouraging recycling has led to household recycling centres becoming increasingly busy, particularly at weekends and bank holidays.
"The applicants state that insufficient space is available to store the materials collected and that if full containers cannot be removed and replaced with empty containers the household recycling centres would have to close early, leading to a reduction in recycling rates and an increase in flytipping."
Objections were made to the extension in hours by the environmental health department at North Wiltshire District Council, Cherhill Parish Council, Compton Bassett Parish Council, Friends of Compton and Surrounds and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
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