Radical cuts to Fife’s recycling centres for domestic rubbish are on the cards to fill in an £800,000 black hole.
Fife Council hopes to claw back £250,000 by closing nine centres scattered across Fife on either one or two days a week.
The move is necessary as an £800,000 deficit was racked up when services were transferred to the arms-length organisation Fife Resource Solutions.
Not only will it mean a cut in opening times, the changes will impact on staff, with the workforce “being required to rotate around sites” and facing the possibility of it having an effect on shift patterns.
There are currently 11 household waste recycling centres open seven days a week in Fife.
They collected more than 80,000 tonnes of rubbish in 2016 and cost more than £2.4 million-a-year to run.
Only Aberdeenshire and Highland Council offers more while the majority of local authorities have far fewer – Scotland’s biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, have four and three respectively.
Councillors on the environment, protective services and community safety committee are being asked by officials to back a plan to close larger household waste recycling centres at Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and Methil for one day a week.
Secondary sites in Cowdenbeath, Cupar, Dalgety Bay, Lochgelly, Pittenweem and St Andrews, where less rubbish is dumped, would close two days every week.
Under the preferred changes the centres will also now close while staff have lunch breaks.
Another option, which see the nine sites open on a three-week rotation basis, is also on the table but it is felt it “may be challenging for householders” to figure out when each site would be open for business.
According to a report before councillors, daily transportation of waste from the 11 sites is a “challenge” in the current financial climate, with the rural location of some leading to “excessively high” travel costs.
“Changes to the operation of household waste recycling centres are required to achieve budgetary targets,” the report said.
“Fife already provides significantly more recycling centre infrastructure than the majority of Scotland and it is considered that the proposals contained within this report will result in minimal disruption to householders while delivering the savings required.”
And it warned failure to make chances would result in challenges for Fife Resource Solutions in meeting its budget.
