Parish Council

MET on March 8 when Barry McKenny, Recycling Officer for East Cambs District Council, was welcomed to the meeting to discuss the problems with the can bank at the Arkenstall Centre, which had attracted several complaints. Mr McKenny advised that one of the small can banks had been taken away because it was broken and unfortunately had slipped through the system without being replaced. He has now set in place the following measures to hopefully alleviate the problems:

A second small bank has been delivered but in the near future the two small banks will be replaced with a large one. The advantage of this will be that Pearsons will come out to empty a large one as soon as it is full as opposed to waiting for other small banks in the area to fill up.

An organisation at Littleport, called Branching Out, will come out on a daily basis, if necessary, to clear up any overflow from the bank. They collect, crush, process and sell the cans to provide funding for their work with disabled people. Their telephone number has been passed to the caretaker at the Arkenstall Centre.

It was stressed that if users could ensure the cans are rinsed then crushed before they are put in the bank they would not take up as much space and this would hopefully alleviate the overflow problem too. This rule also applies to plastic bottles being recycled.