The good news. The closure of Bramford and 6 out of 7 other sites destined to close has been delayed until July31st.  This should allow other solutions to be found.  Sense strikes home at last!  Liberal Democrats have been fighting this since the budget scrutiny in November.

Its been looking for some weeks as though we would all be doing less recycling and more fly tipping as the County Council closed HWRC’s to “save” money.

As you will be aware there has been an intense campaign in the County to find some way out of the problem which would be caused by the County closing HWRC’s.  Mid Suffolk and Babergh Councillors local to Broom, Chelmondiston and Bramford sites have, across party lines, tried to prevent closure.  The waste portfolio holder Roy Barker has worked to ensure alternatives are in place and local councillors have been working on possible local solutions, possibly involving a C.I.C. ( a community interest company).

It is, as ever, difficult to get good information from County but at a meeting involving us all, Lisa Chambers, County Officers and representatives of WRG, some data was extracted. There was also a statement that the site could be available for use at very low rent and a commitment to ask Cabinet for delay of execution..  However the county still had its long term contract with WRG to consider and at the time refused to accept that they should continue to pay for the disposal of household waste if it were collected by a private or Community Interest Company.  :

I estimate annual cost as follows : recyclates are worth some £27,000, WEEE is cost neutral, wood costs £21,000, garden waste £17,000 and residual waste £84,000 giving a total cost of £95,000.  Amortisation of equipment, site licences and management cost £85,000, and labour  £50,000 giving a final balance of £230,000. A cost of some £95/tonne compared to landfill at £107/tonne.  Clearly a local group could reduce some of these costs and perhaps gain value from the wood. Some of the shortfall could be recovered from an entry charge on the 30,000 visitors but there would still be a substantial deficit.  We may still need alternative solutions.

Yesterday, Lisa Chambers, the portfolio holder for waste stated “This morning Cabinet made the decision to delay the closure of six of the seven household waste recycling centres that were due to close on the 9 May 2011 as a result of feedback from the public.

The centres will now remain open until 31 July 2011, during which time the council will be working with its partners in the district and borough councils and Suffolk communities to develop long-term solutions to the closures.”   We may yet see people power work!