A BID to ensure Blaenau Gwent council does not split the opening times of its existing recycling centre with a second facility it plans to open in the borough has been defeated.

The council has submitted a bid to the Welsh Government for £2.5 million to open a second Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) at Roseheyworth Business Park in Abertillery.

Planning permission has already been granted for the long-awaited facility, and the outcome of the bid for funding is expected in the coming months.

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Senior councillors say the second waste centre is vital for the borough to improve its recycling rates – but concerns have been raised after a council report said the opening hours of the existing New Vale site in Ebbw Vale will be cut if the funding bid is successful.

The report says one site will be open three days a week and the other for four days, with existing staff working across both facilities.

Currently the New Vale site opens seven days a week.

“There are no additional revenue costs associated with the new HWRC, as staff will be used from the existing HWRC at New Vale, whereby one site will be open three days per week and the other site will be open four days a week,” the report says.

Cllr Steve Thomas, leader of the council’s Labour group, said he was “dumbfounded” by the idea.

“I can’t see how we are going to improve the recycling rate if we are closing one site for three days and one for four days,” Cllr Thomas said at the full council meeting on Thursday.

Cllr Thomas said he was concerned the council would not receive funding for the project if it cut opening times, as it could be seen to affect the authority’s recycling rates.

Cllr Lisa Winnett raised concern the council would end up with “a pile of fly-tipping dumped outside the recycling centre” when it was closed.

But council leader, Nigel Daniels, said if the bid for funding is successful, a new report would be drawn up to consider opening times.

Cllr Daniels said the report being discussed was “not asking anyone to vote for opening hours.”

It proposed that the council sets aside £520,000, split over the next five years, towards funding the second HWRC.

Cllr Daniels said the new facility is “absolutely essential” for the authority to improve recycling rates, and provided assurance that it is a “political priority.”

Cllr Thomas put forward an amendment stating that “the new development would not depend on a reduction of days at either site,” but it was defeated.

The original recommendation, to allocate funding to the project, was approved.