Cabinet approves submission of planning application for new Tavistock recycling centre

Devon County Council’s (DCC) cabinet has approved the submission of a planning application to build a new £4.9million recycling centre in Tavistock.

The decision was taken at DCC’s Cabinet Meeting on Wednesday November 11, and once built the new facility would replace Tavistock’s existing Crowndale Recycling Centre.

Crowndale was built over 30 years ago, but because of its layout, location and size it has to be closed to the public whenever the waste containers are full and need to be changed over. 

The new facility, if approved, would be built on an adjacent inert landfill site and would not have to be closed when a changeover takes place.

As part of the work to prepare the planning application, a public exhibition on the proposals will be held in Spring 2021.

This will give members of the public the chance to comment on the proposals before the Planning Application is submitted.

Improving the recycling centre facilities in Tavistock is part of DCC’s strategy over the next 15 years, to gradually upgrade, improve or replace the county’s ageing sites should funding become available.

This strategy was also approved by cabinet.

DCC manages 19 recycling centres, but because of increasing demand and the layout of some sites, there can be delays which can make recycling inconvenient.

Councillor Andrea Davis, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Development and Waste, said: “Gradually we aim to modernise all our recycling facilities, to provide a network of modern attractive sites which are convenient to use.

“For instance, the current Crowndale facility is small and when containers are being changed, motorists have to queue while waiting for the centre to reopen. This is inconvenient and not very efficient.

“New or improved facilities, such as the one being proposed at Tavistock, will make it easier for everyone to recycle and maximise the amount of material that can be recycled.”

Councillor Debo Sellis, the local County Councillor for Tavistock, said: “This is great news. It has been a driving ambition as local councillor to improve the centre which will make the whole process of recycling household waste far easier and will help the public recycle, recover and re-use as much waste as possible.”

Caption: From left Cllr Sellis and Cllr Davis at Crowndale HWRC.