People in Bingham say the area is "desperate" for a new recycling centre amid accusations that the county council has broken their promise to provide one. A review is still being carried out into recycling centres across Nottinghamshire after being commissioned a year ago.
The review aims to make sure that Nottinghamshire's recycling services are "fit for the future" and, as part of this, many of the councillors representing Rushcliffe say the area needs a new tip. The only recycling centre available for those in Rushcliffe is at West Bridgford, with the centre at Langar having been closed in 2015.
There were hopes that the county council's recycling centre review would recommend the building of a new tip in Cotgrave, where a preferred site had been identified. But during a meeting on March 15, a senior councillor said the Cotgrave site was now deemed "not appropriate".
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Councillor Neil Clarke, the Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said in the meeting: "The review on recycling centres is underway and, in fact, we're already having many discussions [about] establishing a new centre which will hopefully serve the whole of Rushcliffe.
"Discussions are well underway as to trying to establish where might be the most appropriate place to have a site. The Cotgrave site, when it was delved into in more detail, it was proved to be not appropriate and so now I've had several discussions and it's ongoing work with officers to establish a new centre."
The results of the recycling centre review had been expected in January and the delay, coupled with the scrapping of the Cotgrave plan, has caused anger among some. Independent Alliance councillor Francis Purdue-Horan said: "The news that Nottinghamshire County Council have made no progress whatsoever on a recycling centre near Cotgrave in Rushcliffe is hugely disappointing.
"This represents yet another broken promise by the council. Residents in places like Bingham and villages like Car Colston, Scarrington and Screveton feel desperately let down. Recycling rates, once the pride of Rushcliffe, have gone down and it's a direct result of a seven year, broken promise."
Nottinghamshire County Council says the delay is partly down to understanding recent Government legislation and the impact this will have on recycling services. People in Bingham mostly agreed that Rushcliffe needed another recycling centre.
Aivars Birznieks, 64, who has lived in Bingham for 30 years, said: "It is a bit of a trek if you want to get to one of the tips. I tend to try either West Bridgford or Calverton but it can be a problem and they closed the Langar site."
Michael Moore, 43, said: "I try going to either Newark or West Bridgford but both of them are really busy as it is. You can be queuing at Newark for ages and Bingham is a growing town anyway.
"There's a lot of building work going on around here and so it's desperate for a recycling centre. I don't know if the doctors, schools or anything will cope with all the extra demand, but we definitely need another tip."
Shaun Tuhey, 51, who has lived in Bingham for the last three years, said: "I go jogging and you can see that fly tipping is a big problem around here. It's obviously not the way to go, but it is difficult accessing tips and that's why it happens."
But Dave Bryan, 47, added: "I don't really do anything where I need to use a tip to be honest, but there is the one at West Bridgford so I don't think we need another one around here. They would be better extending one of the existing sites if needed, rather than building a brand new one and creating all the extra infrastructure that would come with that."
Councillor Neil Clarke said: "We are in the process of finalising a strategic review of our recycling centre network. This will ensure that the service is fit for the future and that it takes into account the lessons learnt from the pandemic, the upcoming changes to kerbside collections needed to meet the statutory obligations of the Environment Act and the Resources and Waste Strategy for England, as well as housing growth.
"The considerations of the review cover the whole of Nottinghamshire, not just Rushcliffe. We are unable to make any decisions on specific sites until this review is complete, and this includes the site previously discussed for Cotgrave.
"Any proposals resulting from the review need to align with national waste and recycling policy, and this means that it is not possible to finalise our recycling centre review or complete a refresh of our recycling centre strategy in the original timescales, given the delays to the implementation of the Environment Act and Resources and Waste Strategy. We will continue with the review and announce our proposals as soon as possible."
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