Borders recycling centres to shut one or two days a week from April

Recycling centres in the Borders are to be shut for at least one day a week, and two of them for two, after new opening hours are introduced this spring.
Kelso's recycling centre.Kelso's recycling centre.
Kelso's recycling centre.

That new timetable will be introduced by Scottish Borders Council on Monday, April 1.

Council chiefs say the changes will meet the needs of the public better and make its recycling operations more efficient, as well as helping cut costs.

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All seven community recycling centres in the region will remain open at weekends and they won’t close their doors until later, at 4.45pm.

All centres will open later over the summer to meet demand. Their weekday hours from April to September will be 10am to 6.45pm.

Their winter weekday hours will be cut, however, from 10am to 4.45pm from October to March.

Selkirk and Eyemouth’s centres will close two weekdays a week, but the other five sites will only be shut for one weekday.

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On top of that, all sites will shut from 1.15pm to 2pm daily to allow their staff to take a lunch break.

The changes follow a review carried out in 2016 including a survey yielding more than 1,400 responses.

Statistics show user figures are 45% higher in summer than winter, with centres also used 11% more at weekends than weekdays.

The council says the new opening hours will lead to several jobs being created but existing staff will be asked to work less overtime.

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Selkirkshire councillor Gordon Edgar, the council’s executive member for roads and infrastructure, said: “These changes are based on extensive data gathered by the council including the important opinions of Borderers, alongside the need for the local authority to make savings at an extremely difficult time for public funding.

“While there will be some weekday closures, every facility will be open later in the summer and during weekends, when demand is higher.

“We will be letting as many people as possible know about these changes before they begin on April 1 and will be asking the public to continue to play their part and use our community recycling centres.

“These facilities are free to access for the public, and using them can help the environment and public funding, with the council spending hundreds of thousands of pounds every year on waste which currently goes to landfill which could be recycled at our community recycling centres.”

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The recycling centre at Duns will shut on Thursdays; the one at Eshiels, near Peebles, will close on Wednesdays; and the site at Galashiels will take Tuesdays off.

Eyemouth’s will close on Tuesdays and Fridays, Hawick’s on Wednesdays, Kelso’s on Mondays and Selkirk’s on Mondays and Fridays.

Current opening times are 9am to 5pm om weekdays except Selkirk’s 10am to 6pm, and 9am to 4pm at weekends except Selkirk’s 11am to 6pm.

For further details, go to www.scotborders.gov.uk/recyclingcentres