Council may reduce hours at Melton waste sites to save money

Members of Leicestershire County Council’s cabinet will consider the changes at a meeting on Tuesday and decide whether to consult the public on them.

County Hall, which operates sites at the town’s Lake Terrace, in Somerby and at Bottesford, plans to close tips two hours earlier at 5pm.

This in itself would save £136,000 and the authority says it would affect under six per cent of the 1.5million visits made to the council’s sites across the county every year.

The council also proposes to set up a chargeable service for taking in items such as car tyres and railway sleepers which are considered difficult to dispose of.

There would also be measures to prevent commercial fridges and freezers being disposed of at the tax-payers’ expense.

Blake Pain, cabinet member for environment and transport, said “We’re having to make difficult choices across the council in order to continue to make savings.

“We’ve looked at many options across our recycling and household waste sites, including assessing what the impact would be on our site users and the potential savings.

“We’re very committed to not closing any sites as that would have a significant impact on people using the sites.”

If the plans are approved by cabinet, a consultation will be launched to seek the views of the public, voluntary groups and charities.

Councillor Pain added: “We’re dedicated to supporting any initiatives which help the environment and that includes looking, later in the year, at the way we collect items that could be reused rather than go to landfill, for example, garden tools, mirrors and bric-a-brac.”

The cabinet meeting can be watched online at www.leicestershire.gov.uk/webcast from 2pm on Tuesday.