Surrey County Council has just launched a consultation on ‘Shaping Surrey’s Community Recycling Centres -2017‘. Please submit your views at this online survey here.
The main changes are:
1. Ending the free daily allowance of non-household waste
2. Closing CRCs on two weekdays so all sites are open for five days a week
3. Ensuring CRCs in Camberley and Farnham are only used by Surrey residents
4. Permanent closure of four smaller CRCs – Bagshot, Cranleigh, Warlingham and Dorking
5. Restricting users of vans, trailers and pick-ups to larger CRCs only
There is no doubt that the increased traffic to the Witley Recycling Centre will impact on Godalming users (not to mention the daft increase in pollution), with longer queues in and out of the site and more traffic on back roads and A281. With at least 1500 new homes planned for Cranleigh at the moment (without Dunsfold Park’s 1800+) it seems there is no lack of demand for the facility in Cranleigh!
The Lib Dems on Surrey have issued this press release, rightly highlighting the environmental issues. Cllr Stephen Cooksey said: “These proposals are a green light for flytipping in Surrey. The Conservatives at County Hall are making it harder and harder for people to do the right thing and dispose of their waste responsibly. The environmental consequence of discouraging the use of Recycling Centres would be very significant. Furthermore, these plans are being pushed by the Conservatives because of the financial crisis at County Hall caused by their failure to persuade their Conservative central government to provide a better funding settlement.”
We the undersigned call upon Surrey County Council to reverse its decision to close Community Recycling Centres (CRCs) at Bagshot, Cranleigh, Dorking and Warlingham, and oppose its plans to significantly reduce the opening hours of all other CRCs across the county by two days per week, and introduce further charges for the disposal of waste.