All Surrey’s community recycling centres are to be kept open following a backlash from  residents.

But we suspect some centres will still close on quieter days of the week.

The final decision  will be made at the Cabinet meeting on September 26, which means the council  will not now be able to achieve it’s hoped-for savings of £2 million, just part of  the £100 million savings it needs  to make to balance the books.

Liberal Democrats welcomed the announcement to scrap the previous “unpopular plans” under which recycling centres in Bagshot, Cranleigh, Dorking and Warlingham would have been closed.

The decision came after the largest ever NO VOTE came from the public who raced to sign a petition set up on-line. All over the county borough, parish and town councils opposed closures warning fly-tipping would increase and they, not the county council, would be forced to pick up the bill for the resulting clearance.

Mike Goodman, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for  environment and planning, said: “We’d like to thank residents for their feedback on our proposals – we’ve listened and as a result I’ll be recommending to the Cabinet that we keep all our community recycling centres open.

“With the county council facing huge financial pressure, due to growing demand for adult social care, children’s services and school places, we expect that we’ll need to close some of our recycling centres on quieter days in the week. And we’ll also have to end the free daily allowance for residents’ construction waste.

“We are finalising the plans at the moment but it is clear that we’ll not now be able to achieve all of the hoped-for £2 million savings. And with the council having to find more than £100 million of savings overall this year we’ll still need to find ways of meeting that shortfall.”

According to a Liberal Democrat press release, the county council has confirmed it will proceed with its plans to reduce the opening hours of all the centres across the county as well as dropping the daily free waste allowance which residents currently enjoy.

Cllr Stephen Cooksey, Lib Dem environment spokesperson, said today (September 14, 2017): “I welcome the news that the Conservatives have backtracked on their unpopular plans to close recycling centres in Bagshot, Cranleigh, Dorking and Warlingham.

“However, I remain concerned that they still plan to significantly reduce the opening hours of all of the sites which makes it harder for residents to do the right thing and dispose of their waste responsibly.

“I also think that the removal of the daily free waste allowance is a huge mistake and could lead to a large increase in fly-tipping. I will continue to campaign for increased opening hours and to scrap the counter productive charges that the Conservatives are intent on implementing”.

Many Waverley residents’ believed the move was badly thought out, and ‘very foolish’ bearing in mind that building construction was continuing apace in the borough of Waverley.

The pictures and some content has been produced from the amazing on-line newspaper – The Guildford Dragon.