ALL but one household recycling centre in each of the four areas of Wiltshire, north, south, east and west, is to be closed for two days a week from June, Wiltshire Council has confirmed.

Every household recycling centre, which are run by Hills Waste Solutions on behalf of the council, will be open on what the council is calling high usage days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Wiltshire Council also confirmed that the opening hours for household recycling centres would also be reduced from 9am to 4pm in the winter and 9am to 5pm in the summer to 10am to 4pm all year.

As a result, Hills Waste Solutions has commenced a period of consultation with 31 employees who could be affected by this change.

There are no plans to close any recycling centre permanently.

Mike Webster, group director Hills Waste Solutions, said: “Where possible, affected HRC employees will be offered additional work within the company to minimise the impact the changes may have on them and recruitment for HRC vacancies will be suspended to allow for the redeployment of existing HRC employees.

“We will continue to deliver the same high quality service at the HRCs as we have done in the past and these proposed changes will not compromise our standards of operation.”

The council has been working closely with Hills Waste Solutions on proposals to save £300,000 as part of the £30m savings needed over the next year.

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “Following our decision to review the opening hours at Wiltshire’s 11 household recycling centres (HRC), we have been working closely with Hills Waste Solutions on proposals to help save £300,000 as part of the £30m savings we need to make.

"The proposed changes would see at least one HRC open on all seven days in each of the four areas (north, east, south and west) Wiltshire.  

“The proposal is that all HRCs would open on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (identified as high usage days) and two additional week days. We also propose to reduce HRC opening hours to 10am to 4pm.

“There are no plans to permanently close any sites. The proposed changes would come into operation on 8 June 2015."

Free garden waste collections will continue until June 15, when Wiltshire Council will introduce a charge of £40 per year for fortnightly collections. As at the end of 2014, Wiltshire’s recycling rate was 51.7%.