Council agrees another £140,000 towards controversial recycling centre

The move means that the cost of the recycling centre is now nudging towards the £5 million mark.

The need for more money was revealed at a meeting of Powys County Council’s cabinet on Tuesday, when councillors were updated on the quarterly financial position of its capital programme – the budget that pays for the council’s building projects.

At the end of June, the council had spent £11.22 million of the £115.31 million budget now allocated to 2022/23.

The cabinet needed to approve a number of “virements” - money moved between council budgets or accounts - totalling £780,000, which included the £140,000 for Abermule.

Finance portfolio holder Councillor David Thomas said: “There have been significant material and resource price increases, especially steelwork and concrete, which are a significant element of the project, and these have impacted on the original scheme budget.

“This increase of £140,000 will be funded from the unallocated amount already included in the capital programme so there is no impact on the revenue budget.”

Economy and environment director Nigel Brinn told members that the council had also received a £400,000 grant towards the extra costs of the site.

“I’m very much looking forward to inviting cabinet to visit the site sometime soon,” said Mr Brinn.

Cabinet noted the report and approved the virement.

Earlier this month, villagers staged a small protest against the council’s recycling vehicle fleet for the whole of North Powys being relocated to be based at Abermule.

Some villagers also believed that an election promise by the Liberal Democrats to review the scheme has been ignored.

But this has been refuted by the cabinet member responsible for recycling, Councillor Jackie Charlton, who said that “there is no viable alternative to proceeding on this site”.

In June, the council lodged a planning application for a water tank to hold 250,000 litres of water that would be used to deal with any fires at the recycling facility.

The water tank is a central part of the council’s new application to environment body Natural Resources Wales (NRW) for an environment permit to run the facility.

The last permit application was rejected in March and the main reason behind the refusal was the supply of water in the event of a fire at the site.

The bulking facility is supposed to receive recycling collected from households across Montgomeryshire, where it will be squashed together or “bulked,” so that it can be more easily transported to processors to turn into new products.

The council has stressed that the facility is needed so that it can hit Welsh Government recycling targets.