Changes come to Bucks household recycling centres on 1 April

On April 1 summer opening times come to Buckinghamshire's household recycling centres, with closing time moving from 4pm to 6pm on every day they are open. The opening time stays the same at 9am.

But this year, a range of other changes are also taking place following a decision made by the County Council's Cabinet on 7 January:

Bledlow Household Recycling Centre will close permanently. Burnham Household Recycling Centre is scheduled to close in September, but this may be deferred if the other cost-saving measures are shown to be effective enough.

Chesham, Burnham and Aylesbury (Rabans Lane) sites will be closed every Wednesday and Thursday.

A charge will be made for all 'non-household' waste brought to the site. This is generally material generated by construction, renovation, demolition and landscaping work, which the Council is not legally required to accept as part of its service.

County Council Cabinet Member for Planning & Environment Bill Chapple OBE said: "Although none of the Cabinet wanted to make changes to this very popular service, it remains our responsibility to make these hard decisions on how the Council can continue to provide the essential services on which many of our more vulnerable people rely."The fact is that if we didn't bring in charges for non-household waste I would be looking at permanent closure of further household recycling centres, which is not an option I wanted to take."

"As things are, I'm confident that our household recycling centres will continue to offer an excellent service, and we're trying our best to ensure that the changeover doesn't cause any disruption. However, I would ask people to be patient while the changes are implemented and, as always, check the recycling centre webcams on our web pages before setting out at times such as sunny weekends which are likely to be busy."