Recycling centre to close for months for £1m upgrade

Hempsted Household Recycling Centre will be closed for about three months

A recycling centre is to temporarily close for £1.3m improvement works.

Gloucester's Hempsted Household Recycling Centre will close from mid-January and is expected to reopen by Easter, 5 April. The nearest site during the closure is Wingmoor Farm Household Recycling Centre, which is about 12 miles (19km) away.

Funded by Gloucestershire County Council, the works include installing a new eco-friendly waste compaction system, "urgent" repair to public areas and a new re-use shop.

Councillor Martin Horwood, the cabinet member for waste reduction, said the upgrades will make it "easier" for residents to recycle.

Councillor Horwood said once the work is completed, residents will be able to drop their recyclables "straight into a compactor"

Mr Horwood said once the improvements are completed, residents will be able to drop their recyclables "straight into a compactor".

"Part of what we're doing here is to make it more easier to recycle, so people don't have to lift it and drop it into a skip," he added.

The site, which is run by the council's not-for-profit company Ubico, has been operational since the 1990s and was last upgraded in 2019.

Other work includes resurfacing public tarmac areas, installing a canopy to protect certain skips and electric charring points for Ubico vehicles.

The site's current carbon-fuelled mobile waste compaction equipment will also be replaced.

"We're trying to close it at the least busiest time of year, so there's enough capacity in all the other household recycling centres for people to go to," said councillor Horwood.

He added it is hoped the centre will reopen by Easter.