A REPORT coming before Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) is recommending the relocation of the current Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) at Troy to a larger site.

Roger Hoggins, Head of Operations at MCC is looking into the feasibility of moving the MCC operational depot at the lower end of the Troy centre, to the larger sites at Raglan and Llanfoist.

This will then allow for the transfer of the household waste site, which attracts criticism for its unsuitability for a town the size of Monmouth, to the larger flatter space underneath the current site. The waste site suffers from long delays and temporary closures while the skips are changed over.

Health and safety regulations dictate that while the lorries are unloading the empty skips and taking away the full ones, the site must close to the general public for up to an hour at a time.

The site currently runs at a reduced operational timetable with closures on two days a week. Permits were introduced earlier this year to ensure no ’tourists’ from neighbouring counties use the site and only Monmouthshire council tax payers were sent the tax-disc style displays.

The permits have been introduced in a bid to prevent an influx of waste from neighbouring authorities being placed in the four HWRC across the county which has huge financial implications on the authority. Many neighbouring authorities have introduced similar schemes.

Usk recycling centre could close, if approved in a separate proposal by the cabinet, with the Mitchel Troy site set to stay open an extra day a week.

Another option MCC officers looked into is the feasibility of merging the four northern operational depots of Raglan Llanfoist, Troy and Raglan Enterprise Park into a single depot to handle front line provision of highways maintenance, grounds maintenance and neighbourhood services into one single depot and HWRC.

The report will be discussed this Friday, 20th December.