From next Monday the opening hours at our Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) in Cheney Manor industrial estate will change as part of our drive to make our waste services as efficient as possible.

The change will see us revert to the original summer opening times, which we extended temporarily during the improvement works to nearby Bruce Street Bridges. This means the recycling centre will be open during the summer months (1 April to 31 October) between 8am and 5pm, instead of the current hours of 6am to 8pm.

Although we will reduce the daily summer hours, the site will be open for longer on Thursdays - 8am to 8pm - to help those of us who cannot get there during the usual working day. Since we have undertaken a careful analysis of who is using the site and when, we have also decided close the HWRC all day on Wednesdays as this is traditionally the quietest day of the week. However, it will remain open six days a week including at weekends.

The winter opening hours (1 Nov to 31 Mar) will change slightly with the site being open for 30 minutes less than the current hours (8am to 4pm).

Making these changes to the opening hours will save us almost £100,000 a year in operating costs. We made these alterations following significant investment at the site, which is already beginning to bear fruit.

We now have a dedicated lane for traders, which takes them away from residents dropping off household waste and recycling, and has had a positive effect on queuing times with residents able to drop off their waste even quicker. Part of this work to improve queuing times has also involved asking those using the recycling centre to show they are a resident of the borough before dropping off their waste.

But the HWRC is just once part of the council’s waste and recycling service. I would of course urge residents to minimise their use of the centre by making use of our excellent kerbside waste and recycling service.

We all need to do our bit and recycle as much of our waste as we can. New residents in the borough are entitled to four free recycling boxes and information about recycling and how you can order additional boxes can be found at: www.swindon.gov.uk/recycling

If you’ve recycled as much as you possibly can and your garden waste bin is full to bursting you may have no option but to visit the HWRC. And if that is the case please plan your visits in advance by using the link to the HWRC webcam – www.swindon.gov.uk/hwrc The webcam will show the current queues at the site, but please remember, the camera will be switched off on Wednesdays when the recycling centre is closed.