Hourly cleaning for recycling sites
A county's recycling centres are being sanitized hourly to keep people safe, councillors have been assured.
From Tuesday, May 26, the Potter Group run sites at Newtown, Welshpool, Lower Cwmtwrch Ystradgynlais, Brecon, and Llandrindod Wells started re-opening.
People were to be restricted to 10 minutes for each visit, social distancing rules were to apply and Powys County Council had stressed visits should be for “essential” use only.
At the council's Economy, Residents, Communities and Governance scrutiny committee meeting on Monday, chairman, councillor Mathew Dorrance asked about the hourly cleaning procedures at the sites.
He said: “The risk assessments flagged that catching and spreading the virus at recycling centres was high risk when they opened.
“To mitigate this, control measures such as disinfecting hand rails on gantries and handles on doors, is done hourly.
“What assurances do we have that this is being carried out?”
Senior manager for waste and recycling, Ashley Collins, said: “We’ve been having regular meetings with Potters to make sure everything is in place.
“We’ve got our own staff on site doing the traffic management, they are also in the site as well so they can see what’s going on.”
Mr Collins added that Potters have a health and safety manager checking up on the sites.
He also said that it was in their staff’s “own interest” to make sure that cleaning takes place, but he could not, “guarantee” this.
Cllr Dorrance, raised concerns about sanitizing the sites, and said he expected there to be a checklist for staff to follow at each site.
Director or economy and environment, Nigel Brinn, said: “It’s a fair point it’s something to pick up with the contractor.”
After the meeting councillors were told that Potters had confirmed that sanitising is being done hourly.
The authority said the firm keep records that are available for inspection.
