As previously reported, Northumberland County Council has decided, without local consultation, that the Recycling Centre in Prudhoe should only be open Friday to Monday. This is to save money, caused at least in part by a decline in funding to the County Council from the Tory Westminster Government.
Many local residents believe that the midweek closure of the centre will lead to an increase in fly-tipping, a decrease in recycling rates and create heavier traffic in West Wylam on the days when the site is open.
Prudhoe Town Councillor for West Wylam Paddy O’Kelly launched a petition to oppose the proposed closure that has been signed over 1100 times. Paddy presented the petition to Northumberland County Council today and says:
As you may be aware, Northumberland County Council (NCC) announced a plan to close the recycling centre at Prudhoe three days per week. We started a petition to ask that they reverse this decision on the grounds of fly-tipping, the likelihood that recycling rates will reduce, increased weekend disturbance and pollution from queueing traffic. The petition has over 1100 signatures.
Today I attended a meeting of NCC’s Petitions Committee. I was allowed to speak for 5 minutes and answer their questions. Unfortunately, they then voted against accepting the petition. The vote ran entirely on party grounds: all Conservative councillors were against, the Liberal Democrat abstained and only the Labour Councillors supported us. I am sorry that we were not successful but thanks to everyone for your support. I know that many people feel very strongly about this issue.
In 2022 there were over 4700 incidents of flytipping in Northumberland. Littering and flytipping are a scourge on our beautiful Northumberland landscape. In a recent announcement Labour have pledged to set up “clean up squads” across the country to deal with rubbish being illegally dumped 3,000 times each day.
Labour are committed to safe-guarding the environment. The Tories aren’t.
