GREYSTONES TIP ABANDONED?
A PLANNED recycling centre near Chipping Norton could be
scrapped after the falling price of recyclable waste made it “unviable”.
West Oxfordshire District Council planned to convert its
former Greystones depot, off the A361 south of the town, into the recycling
centre.
The plan was drawn up after the closure of Dean Pit, near
Chadlington, by Oxford-shire County Council as part of a cost-cutting programme
in September 2011.
But the district council says a fall in the prices being
paid for recyclable materials means the centre would run at a loss of
£43,000-a-year.
he cabinet member for resources, Simon Hoare, said: “One of
our aims as a local authority is to be recognised as financially stable and
economically efficient.
“In order to meet that aspiration – from which everything
else follows, including maintenance of free car parking and grants to the
voluntary sector – in my personal judgment it would be perverse and folly to
progress with something which did not have a business case.
“With the huge variation in the market price, we’re in real
danger of effectively signing a blank cheque, the level of which we know is
about £40,000 next year but after that we haven’t got a clue.“I think it would
be irresponsible and unfair to taxpayers to progress with a scheme which could
impact on other services.”
He added: “We were stepping into a hole created by the
county council, for which we have no statutory responsibility. We were trying
to do our best.”
Charlbury councillor Liz Leffman, who campaigned for the new
centre, said: “It’s extremely disappointing. I just can’t believe we are where
we are, when we had planning permission granted last November.
“It is a huge, huge hole for the people of Charlbury and
Chipping Norton not to have this recycling facility.”
She said she would now petition the county council to reopen
Dean Pit.
County Hall is spending £5,000-a-year to maintain the
licence for Dean Pit and meet its “ongoing legal obligation to look after the
landfill site”, a spokesman said.
The district council decided to convert Greystones in
February last year and set aside £190,000 for the project.
But the scheme was delayed as the council negotiated to
purchase a strip of land, owned by Chipping Norton Town Council, needed to
improve access.
The district council now estimates income from the sale of
recyclable material, forecast to be £88,940-a-year in 2012, would be £53,818,
while estimates of running costs rose from a cost of £14,000-a-year in January
last year to £19,000-a-year now.
When it gave the go-ahead, the council was predicting a
profit of £742 a year but it now expects a loss of £42,740. The council’s
cabinet will meet to discuss the project today at its Woodgreen offices in
Witney.
Ed: Isn't it amazing how we have been brainwashed into believe we must recycle more for the environment and to reduce landfill costs and now we have been informed because WODC would not make a profit, in fact a loss that idea has been abandoned. So much for the environment.
Ed: Isn't it amazing how we have been brainwashed into believe we must recycle more for the environment and to reduce landfill costs and now we have been informed because WODC would not make a profit, in fact a loss that idea has been abandoned. So much for the environment.
What is more amazing is how much cost it is claimed to run
such places, why on earth they need high fencing and security around a rubbish
tip is beyond me? Years ago you took something to the tip and frequently bought something back you found useful nor was the place by protected like Colditz, only recently I took rubbish to the OCC tip near Bicester to
see signs saying 'Items disposed within the containers are the property of the
waste management company and removal of items deposited is forbidden' What! Surely
anyone removing something obviously have a better use of it than being solved
as scrap, on another occasion at a trip to the Recycling Centre near Banbury there
was a large cast iron fire basket dumped, clearly something that would cost
£100 if bought new, instead it went into the scrap metal bin to be crushed. As anyone who knows who have been to these reclamation centres frequently the tip Gestapo
treat you as if you are trying to get rid of a corpse rather than being responsible
by not dumping rubbish in the hedgerow.
Anyway I hope they don't change their mind and hope it goes back to Dean where it belongs.
Rant over!