COUNCILLORS will decide the future of a Blaenau Gwent tip next week after being presented with four options.

Blaenau Gwent council wants to improve the borough’s recycling rate to avoid fines from the Welsh Government but said changes need to be made to its household waste recycling centre.

The current centre, at Waun Y Pound Industrial Estate, currently serves the whole of the borough all year round.

The council has a recycling rate target of 58 per cent but this is set to rise to 64 per cent by 2019/20. For every one per cent lower than their target, the council are fined £54,000.

In a report which will go before a full meeting of Blaenau Gwent council next Monday, May 23, council officer Christian Cadwallader said to “do nothing is not considered a viable option”.

He said: “There is general concern in relation to the suitability and safety of the site in its current operational layout.

“This is primarily due to the location of existing containers, the two way flow of traffic and subsequently the impact on the public entering the site during peak times. Any significant performance improvements are unlikely.”

Four options have been put forward for councillors to decide on. Three are to make improvements to the existing site while a fourth means closing the Waun Y Pound tip, which is managed by Silent Valley Waste Services Ltd., and build another.

The report highlighted two preferred options, of which it wants councillors to back one.

Option one, which costs £545,000 and then an extra £30,000 per year, would mean extending the current tip to create two extra tips on top of the eight already there.

Option two is more expensive, costing £820,000 with an extra £35,000 per year, but will add four skips by demolishing a salt barn at the site. Option one will boost the tip’s performance by 11 per cent while option two will achieve a £15 per cent increase.

The third option is similar but has a smaller likely increase in performance. Option four involves closing the whole site and building a new one which would cost a total of £1.7 million.

Mr Cadwallader said: “Whilst the above is approximate, it suggests that option one and option two provide the best value (annual cost against increase in recycling rate).”