Recycling centre closures will damage environment and won't save money!

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has questioned Cumbria County Council's plans to shut the Household Waste Recycling Centres at Ambleside and Grange to save money, calling the plans 'wrong for our environment and completely daft'.

The County Council is proposing to shut six centres and reduce opening hours at the remaining centres. A mobile service would be the only option for many areas losing a permanent centre, which include Millon, Brampton, Kirkby Stephen, Wigton, while residents in Workington and Frizington would have to travel to a planned new centre in Lillyhall. Opening hours would be cut from seven days a week to five, and a charge for disposal of non household waste could be introduced.

Commenting, Tim Farron said, "These plans are worrying. The County Council does not seem to have taken this into account. It is inevitable that the amount of waste going to landfill will increase if the County makes it harder for people to recycle which means much higher landfill taxes for the County to pay - in other words, any savings that the County makes by closing centres will be wiped out by the higher landfill taxes they have to pay. This decision isn't just wrong for our environment, it is completely daft!"