Recycling centre plans submitted

A Cambridgeshire authority which is aiming to lead the way in recycling has submitted plans for a new waste management facility.

The 100,000-tonne capacity recycling centre is designed to help Peterborough achieve its targets for cutting household waste going to landfill.

The plans would transform the former Ray Smith Group factory, at Fengate, in the city's eastern industrial area.

Peterborough aims to reach a recycling target of more than 65% by 2020.

The plans propose that the 62,000sq ft factory building is extended at the rear to provide a "tipping hall" where city council recycling freighters will unload.

These plans...are an important first step in our aim to raise recycling rates to over 65% Wayne Fitzgerald Peterborough City Council

The front of the factory would provide a new home for the city council's electrical appliance recycling programme, which repairs or recycles components from electrical goods.

Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald, the council's cabinet member for the environment, said: "These plans for a new materials recycling facility are an important first step in our aim to raise recycling rates to over 65% - one of the highest targets in the country."

Peterborough has been the top recycler among England's unitary authorities for the past two years.

The city council's planning authority is expected to have made a decision on the centre, which has been proposed by its own waste management authority, by the end of March next year.