Paying £200,000 to let residents in South Wiltshire use the recycling centre across the border in Shaftsbury, Dorset is too expensive, the Liberal Democrat administration has ruled.
For nearly a year Bridget Wayman, the Conservative councillor for Nadder Valley, has been demanding a deal be struck between Wiltshire and Dorset allowing residents in the very south of the county to dump their junk over the border.
Dorset finally clamped down on non-residents using their facilities in March this year, introducing an electronic booking system and charging outsiders £8.50 a visit.
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At a meeting of Wiltshire Council's cabinet on Thursday, Cllr Wayman was back to see if council leader Ian Thorn had made any progress.
She told the meeting how she had bumped into a former chairman of
Semley Parish Council whilst attending a meeting in Warminster.
He and his wife were looking for the town's Household Recycling Centre.
"They were mightily cheesed off at having to take a 30-mile round trip to Warminster when Shaftsbury HRC is one mile, literally one mile, from their house," said councillor Wayman.
"But they were obviously baulking at having to pay £8.50 to go and visit the HRC in Dorset."
She added: "I first raised this on the seventh of July last year, almost a year ago, and I just don't feel that we've got any further.
Council leader Ian Thorn said he had met with officials from Dorset recently.
"The figure we've come up with is about £200,000 a year simply to support Wiltshire residents visiting the Shaftsbury HRC," he said.
"The challenge is that if we were to do a deal with Dorset in relation to Shaftsbury, then we would come under pressure from communities all the way around the edge of the county who use HRCs in other local authorities that border the county.
"The costs would be significant."
"I think Dorset is being very bullish about this," said Cllr Wayman. "They are trying to fleece Wiltshire."
"This has been dragging on for a year now, if not longer. And meanwhile all the Wiltshire residents surrounding Shaftsbury are mightily cheesed off."
Asking the administration to "please just help out a bit," she added: "We're very happy to throw money at children and education, and their care and well-being, but residents around Shaftsbury are paying their council tax and not getting much for it."
"That's fighting talk," the leader remarked, as cabinet members muttered angrily. "It is," she agreed.
"We can have a debate about how much and what people get for their council tax," said Cllr Thorn.
"I'll just end by saying if we were to do the kind of arrangement you're suggesting regarding Shaftsbury, I think we might be doing similar deals in half a dozen other locations.
"We're talking about potentially millions of pounds."
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In May, similar negotiations between Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council stalled when Swindon asked for £1 million a year for Wiltshire residents to use its recycling centre.
The council was looking for alternatives for residents in the north of the county while it identifies and establishes a new household recycling centre.
The recycling centres at Purton and Lower Compton, near Calne, are earmarked for closure, with Wiltshire Council looking for a new site in the Royal Wootton Bassett area.
If no solution can be found, residents of Purton or Cricklade face a 40-mile round trip to Marlborough to dispose of their waste.
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