A WASTE centre in Monmouthshire is to close, as the county council moves ahead with changes to improve its declining recycling rate.

Monmouthshire council’s cabinet voted to close the county’s worst performing Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) in Usk at a meeting on Friday.

It will close from March 31, 2020.

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A council report says the HWRC has the lowest recycling centre of any across Wales, at 47.92 per cent.

The closure will save the council £40,000 in management fees, while also saving £30,000 which would otherwise need to be spent on upgrading the centre.

A renegotiated contract with waste company Viridor could bring a further saving of £40,000.

The authority is planning to introduce black bag sorting across its remaining three recycling centres to boost recycling, but says this would have been ‘impossible’ at Usk due to the size of the site.

A “compulsory recycling scheme” is also being planned by the authority, which will see residents issued with warning letters and potential fines if they do not recycle.

It comes as the council faces a potential fine of up to £133,500 if it misses a Welsh Government recycling target of 64 per cent this financial year.

Its recycling rate is currently predicted to come in at between 62.5 per cent and 63.4 per cent.

Council leader, Cllr Peter Fox, said a lot of food waste and other recyclables are currently going into black bags and made a plea with residents to play their part in improving the rate.

“We need to do this,” he said. “If we end up paying fines that is money we could use on other services and we do not want to be doing that.

“It’s in our gift, every one of us in our communities, to alter this outcome very quickly.”

Deputy leader, Cllr Bob Greenland, said he was ‘shocked’ to learn of the declining rate and said it was for everyone to play their part to make improvements.

As part of the planned changes, the council is also proposing to invest in the HWRC at Mitchel Troy to improve its recycling rate and open it an additional day per week.

A report says the HWRC could be moved to a larger site currently occupied as a depot, where it could provide a wider range of recycling options.

Revised opening hours set to be introduced across the other three waste centres from April 1, 2021.