By Violet Brown
A MAJOR review of household recycling centres across the borough could see the closure of up to seven smaller centres.
Under a huge rationalisation process which is likely to take place within Ards and North Down Council, only the centres (HTCs) in Newtownards and Bangor are guaranteed to stay as council officials look to cut costs and improve recycling.
It is believed all the HRCs on the Ards peninsula – Portaferry, Millisle, Kircubbin and Donaghadee – are at risk with council officials considering a new purpose built centre to replace them on the peninsula.
Council officials have long felt that the rural HRCs are too small to offer a full recycling service so more items go into skips destined for landfill that is necessary. The officials favour fewer, bigger HRCs offering a greater recycling service would be cheaper and improve recycling.
News that council officers favour a rationalisation came in a brief report at a recent meeting of the council’s Environment Committee.
The 2024-2025 service plan for the Waste and Cleansing Services section, drawn up by head of department Nigel Martin, points out that seven of the nine HRCs are more than 20 years old and limited in the amount of recyclable rubbish they can accept.
In addition to the HRCs on the peninsula, the others likely to be critically examined are in Ballygowan, Comber and Holywood.
Mr Martin’s report states: “Seven of the council’s nine HRCs are more than 20 years old and considered no longer fit for purpose on account of the lack of space to provide the full range of materials recycling needed.
“A strategy for future provision needs to be agreed by Council, to enable officers to move forward with the rationalisation of the service.”
A major rationalisation of HRCs was considered several years ago but rejected following huge opposition, primarily from the DUP.
However, in a sign that the party may have softened its stance on the rural HRCs, a key committee member, DUP councillor Alastair Cathcart, said there is now a legal requirement on councils to separate waste and ‘the reality’ was that the only HRC which could offer full recycling of materials was the one at Balloo in Bangor.
“We have nine HRCs which is quite a lot compared to other council areas,” he said. “Some of the smaller ones don’t have recycling facilities”.
Mr Cathcart expressed concern that the term ‘rationalisation’ meant just getting rid of surplus and he preferred to think of reorganisation of the facilities to make sure there was an offering of ‘really good facilities’ throughout the borough so that people could recycle as much as they could.
He said the council didn’t want to end up in a position where they were getting rid of some HRCs without a huge enhancement in recycling services.
“We need to make sure we have HRCs strategically placed throughout the borough for the convenience of residents, but which have the full range of recycling services available”.
“For instance people who are now living in Portaferry have to travel to Newtownards to recycle some of their waste.
“Would they rather have a small site where they can get rid of a few items or would they rather have bigger and better facilities where they can recycle everything closer to their home,” he asked.
“We should have a bigger site in the middle of the peninsula which would not necessarily be in someone’s own town or village”.
The announcement that a rationalisation is on the cards comes after the introducing of an online booking system for HRCs which critics claimed at the time would be used to gather data to justify closing some of the smaller centres.
The committee noted Mr Martin’s report.
