Household Waste Recycling Centre Changes

Frodsham HWRC is currently closed Tuesday and Thursday – from 1 April 2020 the closed days will be brought together, closing Wednesday and Thursday instead. There is a peak in the number of visitors to the site on the morning after the site has been closed, increasing congestion on the site. As the site is currently closed on two separate occasions there are two peaks in visitor numbers on both Wednesday and Friday. Based on evidence from the other secondary sites, closing the site on two consecutive days will reduce congestion and queuing. This will make it easier for service users to know when the site is open along with having operational benefits such as when maintenance work is required on the site.

Summer opening times at all secondary sites will be standardised to 9am to 5pm, five days per week

Currently secondary sites are open five days per week, eight hours a day in the summer season; however each site has slightly different opening and closing times depending on the day of the week. From 1 April 2020 all secondary sites will be open from 9am to 5pm, five days per week.

A review has found that during the summer season the first hour of business on a Monday is very quiet, whilst the final hour is very busy. Changing the operating hours from 8am to 4pm to 9am to 5pm on a Monday would mean the sites are open when customers actually want to use them. There would be no change to the overall number of hours that the site is open.

Similarly on the first hour of business on the days following weekday closures, when sites are open 10am to 6pm it is extremely busy leading to customer impatience, frustration and traffic congestion. Data also shows that usage at the end of the day is very low, and that in general customers actually prefer to use the sites between 10am and 3pm. These changes again would provide customers the opportunity to use the sites at more convenient times of the day, reduce waiting times and congestion.

Winter operating hours will remain unchanged.