Cheddar Recycling Centre under new management from autumn as Biffa contract begins

Somerset's recycling centres, including the one in Cheddar, will be under new management from the autumn as a new contract takes effect.

The Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) currently has a deal with Viridor to manage its 16 household waste recycling centres across the county.

However, Biffa is due to take over the running of the centres in a new deal worth £126 million. The company and SWP have promised customers will see "little or no change" except for new signs on the premises.

The county's 16 recycling centres are in the following locations:

• Saltlands Avenue, Bridgwater (near the new school transport depot)
• Dimmer Lane, near Castle Cary
• Beeching Close, Chard (near the proposed new enterprise centre)
• Wedmore Road, Cheddar
• Blacknell Lane, Crewkerne (near phase one of the Crewkerne key site)
• Brushford Road, Dulverton
• Manor Furlong, Frome (near the Sandys Hill Lane development site)
• Bennett Road, Highbridge
• Mart Road, Minehead
• Bancombe Road, Somerton
• Farm Lane, Street (near Clarks Village)
• Venture Way, Taunton
• Higher Poole, Wellington
• Dulcolte Hill, near Wells
• Roughmoor, Williton
• Artillery Road, Yeovil

In addition to the recycling centres, Biffa will be taking over Viridor's anaerobic digestion plant near Bridgwater (which turns 22,500 tonnes of Somerset's food waste into electricity) and the composting sites which turn almost 40,000 tonnes of the county's garden waste into the Revive soil conditioner.

It does not, however, include Viridor's Avonmouth energy-from-waste plant, that generates electricity from all of Somerset's kerbside rubbish and about 60 per cent of recycle site refuse.

SWP managing director Mickey Green said that the SWP and Somerset County Council are carrying out "due diligence checks" to ensure the best value for taxpayers.

The £126 million was allowed by the Competition and Markets Authority, and all existing Viridor staff are expected to transfer over to Biffa from September.