Labour Councillors across North East Somerset have started a campaign to get recycling centres open in B&NES.

Recycling centres in Bath and North East Somerset closed during the outbreak of COVID-19, as part of the lockdown and social distancing measures. Since the easing of most measures the Council has currently only opened Keynsham recycling centre, with restrictions in place for odd and even number plates.

B&NES Labour Group say that this isn't enough to deal with the quantity of waste that has been generated by residents who have been in lockdown for months.

Paulton Councillor Grant Johnson said "Problems with queueing and wait times at Keynsham have been compounded by residents travelling from all over B&NES to use the facility. I fully supported the Council when it took the decision to close centres at the beginning of lockdown, but there really isn't any need for this to continue any longer."

Responding to why the measures were no longer necessary, he added "All residents will have the ability to get their haircut or visit the local pub this Saturday, so why shouldn't they be able to take their waste to the local tip? We all pay Council Tax to provide these services and now residents are rightly unhappy that centres are still closed. I just hope that the council isn't using COVID-19 as an excuse to cut services and costs, our residents deserve better than that."

Councillor Liz Hardman also added: "We would like to see all recycling facilities reopened as soon as possible. Our residents are saying they have reached saturation point in the amount of waste they can safely store"