Changes to household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) in Cheshire East will come into effect on Monday 5 August 2024. From this date:
The changes are being introduced on a temporary and trial basis to ensure essential savings are made in 2024/25. They are separate to an ongoing review of household waste recycling centres.
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In February, the council agreed a budget for 2024/25 which will protect vital services and focus council funds on providing support where it will make the most difference.
As part of the essential savings measures for 2024/25, and due to increasing operating costs, the emergency closure of some household waste recycling centres ( HWRCs ) in the borough was agreed.
We are working hard to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible. As part of this, we are timing the mitigation measures – the booking system, later opening hours, and the mobile HWRC – to go live at the same time as the emergency closures.
Throughout the emergency closures and as part of an ongoing review of HWRCs , we will continue to engage with town councils to explore opportunities for working in partnership to support HWRC services in their local areas.
Setting the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and agreeing our budget for 2024/25 was extremely challenging, and we are still forecasting a four-year funding gap of £100m to balance our budget and ensure we hold an appropriate level of reserves.
This is because of factors including the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis and inflation on council finances, as well as increased demand and costs for adult social care and children’s services, especially special educational needs that have not been met by increased funding.
It is for these reasons that we must continue to make extremely difficult decisions about how key services in the borough are delivered, including about the household waste recycling centre service.
On a trial basis, we will be introducing a booking system for visiting our HWRCs at peak times - weekends and Bank Holidays.
From 5 August, if you need to visit Alsager, Crewe, Macclesfield or Knutsford HWRCs during these times you will need to book a slot online before you arrive.
This is so that queues and people’s waiting times can be managed. There will be no limit to the number of times you can visit.
Our booking system is not yet open but will be live in time for the weekend of 10 and 11 August – keep checking back to this page for further updates.
You will not need to book if you visit during the week.
From Monday 5 August, Crewe, Macclesfield, Alsager and Knutsford HWRCs will be open for an extra hour each weekday to allow more people to visit during the evenings.
This means that these sites will be open until 6pm each weekday during July, August and September.
If you visit these sites during the week, you will not need to book a slot before you arrive. However, a booking system for visiting these sites during weekends and Bank Holidays will be in place once the emergency closures have taken place.
If you live in the Bollington, Poynton and Middlewich areas, a mobile household waste recycling service will be available to you while the emergency closures are in place. You can also visit any of the other HWRCs in Cheshire East.
Find out more about the mobile HWRC.
We encourage people to reduce and reuse their waste and unwanted goods, and to use their silver bin to recycle as much as their waste as possible.
If you have items you need to dispose of, there are a number of other places locally that you can take your waste and recycling.
It is a statutory requirement that councils provide the public with reasonable access to household waste recycling centres. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) provides national guidelines for local authority management of HWRCs .
WRAP guidelines suggest that the maximum driving times to a HWRC for the great majority of residents should be 20 minutes in urban areas and 30 minutes in rural areas.
Currently, 7 HWRCs are operated in Cheshire East. It is not possible for us to provide individual HWRCs in all 14 of are towns or large villages – the cost would be too prohibitive, and this level of provision is not required by law.
We closely monitor fly-tipping as part of information passed to central government, published though the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Importantly, fly-tipping is a crime and an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Conviction could lead to a heavy fine. You can report fly-tipping though our street cleansing, litter and flytipping page.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) provides national guidelines for local authority management of HWRCs .
WRAP guidelines suggest that the maximum driving times to a household waste recycling centre for the great majority of residents should be 20 minutes in urban areas and 30 minutes in rural areas.
Legally, local councils cannot charge for statutory services, which means that we cannot charge people to access HWRCs . Therefore, it is not an option we can consider when looking at any future proposals for the longer-term provision of HWRC services.
The emergency closures and mitigation measures are being introduced separately to an ongoing review of HWRCs . A public consultation on proposals for the longer-term provision of HWRC services recently closed.
A review of HWRCs in Cheshire East is needed so that we can continue to deliver a service that enables residents to recycle and dispose of their waste responsibly and is also within the limits of what is possible financially over the coming years.
While we approved a balanced budget for the council for 2024/25 as part of our medium term financial strategy (MTFS) 2024-28, we still forecast a four-year funding gap of £100m to balance our budget and ensure we hold an appropriate level of reserves.
All our HWRCs are in need of investment to ensure that they are well-equipped and up to modern standards, particularly to improve the general customer experience, the facilities for staff, and the security of the sites.
This investment is in addition to significant annual running costs of the sites, which continue to rise.
A recommendation for the longer-term provision of HWRC services will be presented back to the environment and communities committee in autumn this year.
This will consider the feedback received through a public consultation held in May/June 2024, the affordability of the options presented, and up-to-date site user data. This data includes visitor numbers for each HWRC , and information about where people are travelling from to the different sites.
A key aspect of the recommendation will be a focus on delivering a service that promotes waste prevention and reduction so that ultimately, less waste needs to be taken to our HWRCs and the impact on the environment is reduced.