Villagers' plea for second bottle bank

2:12pm Monday 7th July 2008

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BROUGHTON residents are disappointed they are unable to recycle as much as they want to - because the village bottle bank is smaller.

The village's bottle bank was reduced in size when Test Valley Borough Council changed contractors in the spring.

Now the one smaller, container is very often full.

Village hall warden Tricia Chadder is urging all residents who use it to write to Test Valley Borough Council to ask for a second bottle bank.

She believes the council, which is encouraging everyone to recycle as much as they possibly can, should do its bit to allow the area's recycling rates to rise.

"I just cannot understand how the council can expect everyone to keep up with recycling if they don't provide us with enough facilities," said Tricia Chadder.

"We do a very good job in the village of trying to recycle but it's hard when we're not being provided with enough equipment to do so.

"It's dangerous too as people are leaving their bottles by the bank if it's too full."

She added: "Surely it would cost the council less in the long run to provide us with an extra green bottle bank rather than having to increase their collections?" added Mrs Chadder.

A spokesman from Test Valley Borough Council said: "When allocating new banks to the Local Recycling Centres, the council's environment and health officers carried out an assessment and were careful to ensure that all were given similar capacity.

"In some areas, the collection frequency has been increased to weekly instead of fortnightly and as a result the contractors have not reported any problems with overflowing banks.

"However, we will continue to monitor the situation at all of our recycling sites and will act accordingly if extra capacity is needed."