Broken recycling machine costs council £212,000

Gloucester City Council leaders said the authority has not been making as much money as expected from recycling as a result of the broken machine

A machine which bales recycling in Gloucester has been "out of action" for several weeks costing taxpayers £212,000, it has been revealed.

Gloucester City Council leaders gave an update on the authorities finances at a meeting on 3 September.

The leaders said the authority has not been making as much money as expected from recycling as a result of the broken machine.

Finance services manager Hadrian Walters said the machine has been fixed over the past six weeks.

'Unfortunate'

He said: “The machine crunches the recyclables down - they lose value if it is put on lorries to go to the recycling places so we get a lesser value.

"The workload didn’t change dramatically, as far as I’m aware.”

Councillor Declan Wilson said there was no backlog of work to be done but it cost money.

“It's unfortunate but then you think should we be reliant on one machine? But I imagine these machines are very expensive.

"So it’s just onus to make sure it is properly maintained and it doesn’t break down in future.”