"CLOSE supervision and control" will be needed if a temporary site for recycling and household waste in Helensburgh is to work, according to the town's community council.
The short-term facility will open to the public at the town's pier head car park on the morning of Monday, June 1 – though Argyll and Bute Council is asking Helensburgh residents to use the site "only if it is absolutely necessary".
And people will be able to take a much narrower range of items to the temporary facility than usual.
Helensburgh Community Council's convener, Norman Muir, said setting up a temporary site was a "logical" move because of the risk of traffic congestion on the approaches to the town's usual household waste and recycling centre, off the A818 at Blackhill.
“We are obviously extremely encouraged by the re-establishment of some form of recycling facility," Mr Muir said.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Helensburgh's new, but temporary, recycling facility
“The build-up of garden rubbish in particular will be significant. The use of the pier is logical and gets round the problem of traffic congestion at the Blackhill site."
The council hopes the temporary site will be in use for no more than a fortnight, and that the Blackhill facility will reopen – with social distancing in place – once the post-lockdown peak has died down.
Mr Muir continued: “As to whether it was necessary to close the centre in the first place, the stock reasons of shortage of staff and health and safety are very difficult to challenge, and there was no way of knowing whether the onward disposal of rubbish in the recycling cycle would have been affected causing backlogs et cetera.
“In the main, it is good positive thinking, but will need close supervision and control.
READ MORE: Temporary recycling site to be opened at Helensburgh's pier head car park
“The aim should be to re-instate the normal recycling centre procedures as soon as possible.”
The pier head car park facility will be open from 9.30am-5.30pm Monday-Friday, and from 10am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Last entry will be 30 minutes before closing time.
However, the new facility will only be capable of taking domestic/general waste and garden waste.
There will be no containers available for recycling paper, cardboard and plastics, and no facilities for electrical items, white goods, large items of furniture and hazardous materials.
READ MORE: Council suspends household recycling uplifts in Helensburgh and Lomond due to pandemic
For an initial period, only cars will be allowed into the temporary site – and they will only be allowed in on a one-in, one-out basis.
The council has also warned that if the site becomes too busy it will need to close again.
All of Argyll and Bute Council's household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) will open on Monday morning, having been closed since late March due to lockdown restrictions.
A spokesperson said: "Centres are also likely to be very busy for the first few days.
"To avoid the risk of waiting in long queues, and not being able to get into the centres, we would ask residents to use them only if it is absolutely necessary.”
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