Coder Road amenity skip and recycling centre in Ludlow to close
Coder Road amenity skip and recycling centre in Ludlow is to close following a detailed review of the site and its operation, and a public consultation into the possible future use of the site.
The outcome of the review and the consultation was considered by Councillor Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for waste management at his portfolio holder decision-making session on Tuesday (28 January 2014).
Councillor Charmley agreed with the officer recommendation to close the site, which will now close to the public in late February 2014.
Closure of the amenity skip site was recommended due to the low recycling rate at the site, the prohibitive cost of upgrading the site (£600,000), and the potential opportunity to use the land occupied by the amenity skip site into a wider development for the local community.
The move will also save Shropshire Council around £100,000, and encourage greater use of nearby modern household recycling centres, providing a wider range of recycling opportunities for local residents and improving the council’s recycling performance.
Shropshire Council and its waste contractor Veolia currently operate five household recycling centres (HRCs) across the county, plus the Coder Road amenity skip site.
The review of the Coder Road amenity skip site was carried out as south Shropshire is the only former Shropshire district to currently have two recycling centres (including the household recycling centre at Craven Arms business park), and as the Coder Road site compares badly to the county’s five other household recycling centres in terms of the amount of waste taken to the site for recycling, the facilities provided at the site, and its opening hours.
Fourteen different materials can be taken to the Coder Road site for recycling – compared to more than 30 at each of the county’s five household recycling centres.
It opens from 12 noon to 8pm, Tuesday to Friday, and from 8am to 1pm on Saturday – rather than 9am to 5pm every day for the other household recycling centres, including the one at Craven Arms.
And the recycling rate at Coder Road in the year 2012/13 was less than 30% – compared to an average of 60% at the county’s five household recycling centres.
Councillor Charmley, said:
“A thorough review of the Coder Road amenity skip and recycling site has been carried out by council officers and a number of options for the future of the site have been considered. However, it’s clear from this review that closure of the site is the most appropriate option, and for a number of reasons.
“It would allow the council to make financial savings, will help to boost our recycling rate by encouraging people to use the many other, better, recycling services and facilities provided in the south Shropshire area, and offers the potential opportunity to use the land as part of a wider development for the local community
“I thank everyone who took part in the two rounds of consultation into possible future uses of the site, and all comments made were read and considered.
“I acknowledge that the Coder Road site is popular with many local people. However the majority of household waste taken to Coder Road is ‘black bag’ waste that ends up in landfill rather than going to be recycled. By encouraging people to use the household recycling centre at Craven Arms – at which many more items can be recycled – as well as the wide range of recycling banks that can be found across the district – we can boost the amount of waste that is recycled and reduce the amount that goes to landfill, which will help the environment and saving council tax payers’ money in landfill tax and disposal costs.
“There is no evidence to suggest that other parts of the county with only one recycling centre experience increased level of flytipping compared to south Shropshire. And it’s important to remember that fly tipping is a criminal offence, and the vast majority of people are law-abiding.
“And with Craven Arms household recycling centre (HRC) just nine miles from Ludlow, residents of the Ludlow area will have a similar travelling distance to their nearest HRC as residents of other similar sized market towns which have no recycling centre, such as Market Drayton, Ellesmere, Shifnal and Highley.”
Additional information
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, Shropshire Council in its role as a waste disposal authority must provide at least one site within the county for residents to take their waste for disposal or recycling. This requirement is more than satisfied through provision of a household recycling centre (HRC) in each of the five former administrative districts.
