Published on 5th January 2023

Sign on a grass verge in front of the Swindon Road recycling centre reads 'Household recycling centre' in white letters on a green background

The Swindon Road household recycling centre (HRC) opening hours will change from Wednesday 1 February.

This move comes following a decrease in use by residents after the pandemic and to help reduce operating costs by around £35k per year.

The service at Swindon Road HRC is unique in Gloucestershire and provides Cheltenham residents with extra recycling services that are entirely funded by the borough council. The county council provide and fund five HRC’s across Gloucestershire including Wingmoor Farm at Bishops Cleeve.

Cllr Iain Dobie, cabinet member for waste, recycling and street services, said: “We recognise the value of our household recycling centre and we’re proud that we’re the only district council in the county to offer this service to our residents.

“However, due to a reduction in use of the facility during week days, combined with the increasing budget pressures, we have put forward a potential solution to continue this discretionary service by adjusting the daily opening hours, and closing on a Wednesday as this is a quieter day.

“We’d like to assure residents that we remain invested in this high quality facility and we’re looking to offer an even wider range of re-use and recycling opportunities in coming months, to help support our ambition to reduce the amount of residual waste. Cheltenham is already the first district council in the country to provide kerbside recycling of coffee pods and to introduce the FlexCollect kerbside recycling trial of plastics bags, wrappings and film.”

The council has monitored usage of the site and results from previous public consultation exercises with this recent data have resulted in the council agreeing new standardised opening times, with no summer or winter time variations.
The changes to the opening hours, including a Wednesday closure, will reduce energy consumption and therefore energy costs to support the climate emergency and budget pressures at the same time.

The new opening hours from Wednesday 1 February are:

Monday – 8.30am – 4pm
Tuesday – 8.30am – 4pm
Wednesday – CLOSED in line with Gloucestershire County Council sites
Thursday – 8.30am – 4pm
Friday – 8.30am – 4pm
Saturday – 8.30am – 3pm
Sunday – 9am to 12noon

For further information about waste and recycling in Cheltenham visit the council’s webpages.

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