PR 2784

NEW BASINGSTOKE RECYCLING CENTRE OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Hampshire County Council's new expanded household waste recycling centre (HWRC) in Wade Road, Basingstoke, has been officially opened for business.

The new larger site has been in operation since March following the completion of a £650,000 expansion scheme. Using an unused compound area adjacent to the existing site, a mirror image has been constructed which has doubled the number of bins and car parking spaces available. As Basingstoke is one of the busiest HWRCs in Hampshire, the expansion has greatly improved customers' experience by making the site quicker and easier to use.

The expansion was funded by a grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Alongside the increased capacity, the improved site has all the usual HWRC facilities including a sales area, site hut, and bins for recycling all sorts of bulky household materials.

County Council Chairman, Cllr John West, formally opened the new HWRC, accompanied by Executive Member for Environment, Cllr Tim Knight. Cllr Knight said: "The County Council's 24 recycling centres across Hampshire are used by almost four million people every year, bringing in 250,000 tonnes of material. We recognise the value of these sites, and are making significant capital investment in the coming years to make them bigger and better.

"This excellent new site at Wade Road has been very well received since it opened in March, and I feel sure it will continue to improve over the summer, pushing the recycling rate up to and beyond 60 per cent."

Basingstoke HWRC is open every day except 25-26 December and 1 January. Opening times are 8am-7pm from April to September, and 8am-4pm during the winter months.

ENDS

Notes for Editors

The new expanded Basingstoke HWRC can accept for recycling: bulky household items (fridges, cookers, washing machines), green garden waste, metal (ferrous and non-ferrous), newspapers and magazines, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, soil and rubble, food and drink cans, furniture, bric-a-brac, hazardous household waste (gardening products and household chemicals), household batteries, fluorescent light tubes and bulbs, textiles, wood, electrical goods, cement bonded asbestos, used engine oil and car batteries.

For further media information please contact: Sarette Martin on 01962 847666
sarette.martin@hants.gov.uk

25/04/2006